Destiny's Way
by Lady Dawson
Summary: Sequel to The Unknown Destiny. As the siblings prepare for the birth of Nathan's son, an unexpected surprise shows up. But are Lucas, Susan, and Nathan prepared for the next step in their destiny? Crossover with Charmed.
1. Pregnant?

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Pregnant?

Susan Dawson-Scott paced back and forth in the bathroom as she listened to the cries of her niece and nephew down the hall. She could hear her sister-in-law Brooke Davis-Scott trying to calm them down, along with her elder brother Lucas. Running her hands through her dark hair, Susan closed her eyes, sinking down beside the bathtub, checking her watch again.

As she got to her feet, a knock pounded on the door impatiently. "Sue, are you almost done?" her younger brother Nathan called. "I need to get to work!"

"I'll be just a few more minutes!" Susan called back, a bit annoyed with her brother right now. She knew that it wasn't his fault; he was tired with working and school and a pregnant wife, plus a niece and nephew keeping them up at all hours, but she didn't care right now.

Nathan let out an exasperated sigh. "Are you positive?" he asked her warily.

Susan looked down at the pregnancy test that was lying on the counter, the results not having shown up yet. "I hope not," she muttered, shaking her head. Returning her attention back towards her brother, she said, "Look, just go use Lucas's shower, he's too busy with the twins right now."

"I heard that!" Lucas shouted from the other room. Susan shook her head again as Nathan sighed and his footsteps disappeared.

Closing her eyes and trying to stay calm, Susan looked into the mirror, brushing out her dark hair impatiently, frantically trying to make herself look as presentable as possible while she waited those long minutes for the pregnancy test results.

Finally, the timer clicked off and she looked down at the pregnancy test, before looking down at the box of instructions again, looking back and forth. She closed her eyes, running her hands over her eyes as she threw the box into the trashcan.

"Oh, my god," she muttered, her hand sliding down to rest upon her flat stomach. She was barely even breathing as she looked down at it. "I'm _pregnant_."

Susan looked up as another knock came on the door. "Listen, Susan, can you hurry it up?" Brooke asked. "Nathan's using our bathroom and I really need to get ready while the twins are down."

"I'm coming," Susan told her. Taking one last look in the mirror, she sighed and walked out of the bathroom. She had barely made it out before Brooke dived in, locking the door securely behind her.

Brooke sighed in relief as she locked the door behind her sister-in-law, relieved to at least have a few minutes to look somewhat presentable before she got to class today. Turning on the shower, she was about to get undressed to step into the shower when something in the trashcan caught her eye.

Walking towards it, she picked up the pregnancy test that was lying on the top of all the garbage, her jaw dropping when she saw it. After being a teenage mother and having almost gotten pregnant with Lucas's baby once before, Brooke Davis-Scott knew perfectly well what a pregnancy test was.

Her head snapped towards the closed door where Susan had just left and she looked back down at the pregnancy test before looking back towards where Susan had just disappeared. "No way," she whispered, shaking her head disbelieving. "Susan's pregnant?"

She supposed that she shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, Scotts were one of the fastest breeding mammals on the planet. It didn't take a Scott woman very long to get pregnant by a Scott male or if you were a Scott woman by birth, by another man.

But still . . . Susan should have known better than to something without using precautions. Brooke shook her head, knowing perfectly well that there was no form of birth control that was absolutely perfect.

Well, except for abstinence. And neither she and Lucas nor Nathan and Haley had been practising _that_ when they had gotten pregnant. Haley was still about a month away from delivery and she was still getting morning sickness. Brooke's had gone away in the first few months, but Haley's had stayed with her the entire pregnancy.

Brooke shook her head as she dropped the pregnancy test back into the trashcan. Maybe she was wrong and it wasn't Susan's. Or maybe it was just a false alarm.

However, being a telepath meant that Brooke couldn't stop overhearing things in people's heads that they didn't necessarily want to hear. And she could hear her sister-in-law's mind-voice loud and clear as she stepped into the shower.

_What am I going to tell Shawn?_

--

Haley James-Scott looked up as her husband's sister climbed down the stairs and into the kitchen, tossing her backpack onto the chair as she headed towards the cabinets. "Morning, Susan," she said warily, rubbing her stomach where her son was still in her womb.

"Morning, Hales," Susan answered with a small, weak smile. "How's my little nephew this morning?"

"Irritating his mommy this morning," Haley muttered. "Actually, for the past five or so months, when the morning sickness was supposed to go away. Every woman in that class Nathan and I are going to said that it's supposed to go away after the first trimester."

"Well, at least in a month or so, it'll be over and Wyatt will be keeping you guys up all night instead of having your head in a toilet first thing in the morning," Susan told her. Haley made a face at her. "I'm seriously thinking of casting a silencing spell around my room so I can get some sleep around here."

"Okay, that is personal gain," Haley reminded her.

"Trust me, it's not for personal gain, it's so that I won't end up in the psyche ward because I've gone crazy with everything that's going on around here," Susan told her.

"All right, fine." Haley shook her head. "Because I need at least one of my midwives with a clear head when she delivers my baby. Brooke certainly isn't going to be the sanest one around here. She's got twice as much to worry about than I do with the twins."

"Yeah, at least you only have to give birth to one baby," Susan reasoned. "Brooke had to give birth to two and we almost lost Keith on the delivery. Which makes me wonder if having a home birth is even a good idea, Hales."

Haley shook her head. "Having a magical baby in the hospital isn't a good idea, Susan. Considering the fact that Wyatt can heal himself from the womb and throw up a defensive shield, who knows what he's going to do on the delivery, not to mention after he's born." She paused. "How did your mother handle delivering a half-witch, half-Whitelighter baby?"

Susan pausing, frowning slightly. "Uh . . . one of her former charges was a doctor," she answered. "A witch. And she delivered me at Mom's house, but I don't think that there was anything out of the ordinary about the delivery. Apart from being one of the first witch-Whitelighters in the history of the magical world." She paused, pushing a lock of dark hair behind her ear.

Haley glanced up to see the look on her face that clearly said that she was thinking about something. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"Nothing," Susan said quietly. "It's nothing, Hales. Uh, listen, I promised Karen that I would go and open the café, so I'll see you later."

"Aren't you going to eat breakfast?" Haley asked, but her sister-in-law was already gone. Shaking her head, Haley looked down at her stomach. "Your auntie is hiding something, isn't she?" she asked, receiving a kick to her kidneys in reply. She groaned, rubbing her stomach to soothe her son. "I'll take that as a yes."

She was about to return to breakfast that she had been working on when Susan came down when Brooke entered the kitchen, looking around the room. "Did Susan already leave?" Haley nodded. "Great. Okay, is there anybody else in this house besides our sister-in-law who could possibly get pregnant?"

"Considering that everybody else in this house is male, besides your daughter, probably not."

Brooke nodded, looking serious as she pulled something out that she had been hiding behind her back. "Well, look what I found in the bathroom," she said quietly, handing it over to Haley. The Whitelighter looked at the object in Brooke's hand and her eyes fastened on it. "I think that Susan might be pregnant."

Haley shook her head, a disbelieving laugh escaping from her. "No, that's not possible, I mean . . . well, I know that it's possible, but why wouldn't she tell anybody about that?"

"Hey, I kept my pregnancy a secret from Luke for a couple of weeks after I started suspecting that I was pregnant," Brooke reasoned. "I mean, it wasn't confirmed or anything, but still . . ."

"Maybe it's not hers," Haley suggested. "I mean, you've got models coming in here all the time, couldn't one of them have . . . no, I didn't think so," she sighed when Brooke shook her head. "Another baby . . . oh, the Elders are going to _kill_ Shawn when they find out that another Charmed One is pregnant with a Whitelighter."

"Well, it's not like they're cross-breeding with something that's not already in her blood," Brooke pointed out. "The mother is already half-Whitelighter, so this is just adding some more Whitelighter to the mix. I guess that means the baby will be more Whitelighter than he is witch."

Haley shook her head. "What makes you so sure that Susan's baby is going to be a boy?"

"Well, because when our kids came back from the future, Chris was a boy and he had a little brother. Besides, when Chris left, he said that he wouldn't mind having an older brother. Didn't say anything about a sister."

"That's a good point," Haley said, shaking her head. "Look, let's not say anything to the guys until we know for sure that it was Susan's. It might not have been. And even if was, maybe it was just a false alarm. You and Lucas had one before you got pregnant with the twins, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," Brooke sighed. "But somehow, I don't think so. She's been acting weird for the past week or so. And you know that she's been irritable lately."

"Probably from getting no sleep with the twins," Nathan answered, appearing from behind Brooke. Haley shoved the pregnancy test out of sight before her husband could see it as he came around and kissed her good morning. "What are we talking about?"

"Oh, just girl stuff," Brooke answered cheerfully, running a hand through her dark hair. "Listen, I've got some stuff to take care of before I get to class today, so I'll see you guys later."

"Bye," Haley said as she hurried out the door. With a sigh, she turned back to her husband, resting her head onto his chest.

"So," Nathan said with a grin. "How's our little boy?" He rubbed his hands over Haley's swollen stomach and she smiled, feeling the baby kick against her.

"I think if he isn't born pretty soon, then I'm going to have a meltdown," she sighed. "I'm already over a month late. Not to mention, Wyatt's going to have nowhere to sleep because the crib hasn't been set up yet."

"Haley, I am going to put it together," Nathan insisted. Haley raised her eyebrows. "Okay, _Lucas_ is going to put it together just as soon as he gets a chance. He's been kind of busy with the twins lately."

"Right." Haley shook her head as a summoning call came from the Elders. She glanced up towards the heavens, frowning. "Oh, great. They're calling me," she explained to Nathan's bewildered look. "I'd better go see what They want."

"It's not even nine o'clock in the morning, what could They possibly want this early?" Nathan complained just as Lucas let out a shout from the next floor.

"Demon!"

"Haley, stay here," Nathan ordered, hurrying upstairs. But his wife paid no attention as she raced after him. The youngest Charmed One had to duck as Lucas sent the demon flying away from the twins.

"Nathan, spell!" Lucas yelled at him while he was keeping the demon at bay.

Grumbling under his breath about the injustice of having to come up with a rhyme so fast, Nathan began to chant:

_"Evil who prays within this room,_

_Be gone to the realm of doom._

_Vanquished here in this place,_

_Destroy here within this space." _

The demon exploded and Nathan shook his head, looking towards his brother. "We have _got_ to find some way to keep demons out of the nursery," he sighed, suppressing a sigh.


	2. Demon and Woman Talks

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Two: Demon and Woman Talks

Susan let out a sigh as the last of the morning rush was gone, adding the last of the money to the cash box. "Well, that's the last of it," she said, glancing over at Karen, who was bouncing her baby cousin Janie on her hip.

Janie giggled up at Susan as she reached out for her cousin, who immediately hoisted her onto her own hip. "Jeez, it's scary how much she looks like Keith, huh?" she asked, glancing over at Karen.

"Yeah," Karen sighed, looking wistful for a moment. "She does. Speaking of babies, though, how's it going back at the manor? Nothing out of the ordinary has happened?"

The witchlighter looked over at Karen, knowing that the older woman worried constantly about her son's safety and the safety of her grandchildren. "Hasn't been lately," she answered with a shrug. "There's been a few attacks since that battle with Anderson seven months ago, but nothing major." She frowned slightly. "Actually, there hasn't been any since the twins were born."

Karen let out a sigh. "Well, that's a relief," she said with a smile as another customer came in. She went over to help the customer just as Susan's cell phone rang.

Hoisting Janie higher onto her hip while reaching for her phone, Susan glanced down at the ID. "It's the house," she told Karen, who looked over at her. Flipping the phone open, she answered it. "Hello? Hey, Nathan," she said.

"Hey, listen, I've got a favour to ask," Nathan said quickly. "I think we're going to need some kind of demonic alarm system or something around the nursery or maybe a protection spell," he added thoughtfully. "So I need you to come home and help me and Luke come up with a spell or a potion or something."

"Nathan," Susan said, lowering her voice as she ducked in the back, "if there was such a thing as a protection potion, then we would be drinking it in our morning coffee."

"Funny," Nathan teased.

Susan smiled, shaking her head. "Okay, so what's this about, anyway?" she asked. "There hasn't been any attacks in about a month or two."

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot to tell you. Lucas and I had to vanquish a demon in the twins nursery this morning."

"What?!" Susan shrieked, making Janie start crying. Trying to calm her baby cousin while talking on the phone with her brother, Susan gave up and handed the baby back to her mother. "Okay, how could you forget to tell me something like that? Are you crazy?"

"Hey, calm down, why are you so freaked out, anyway?" Nathan asked her. "It was just one demon."

"One demon?" Susan snapped. "Oh, some lunatic from the Underworld tries to kill my niece and my nephew and _I'm_ the one who's freaking out? Not to mention, neither one of my brothers found it necessary to tell me this information?"

Nathan was quiet for a moment. "Okay, I'm sorry. But I do think that you're overreacting just a little bit."

"Oh, I'm overreacting?" Susan growled. "Afraid not, little brother. Look, the next time a demon attacks, just call me, okay? I do not want to come home one day and find one of my nephews or my niece dead at the hands of a demon. We've already lost enough family members to evil."

She closed her eyes, glancing at Janie for a moment before she turned her attention to the conversation. "How many demons was it this time, anyway?" she asked quietly, running a hand through her dark hair. Unconsciously, her gaze shifted towards her stomach, where she knew a tiny life had started to grow there. Her thoughts immediately drifted towards her Whitelighter boyfriend.

What was he going to say when he found out? Not to mention, what were the _Elders_ going to say when They found out? They had barely let Nathan and Haley be together and only because he had started falling to the dark side after losing her.

"Sue, are you listening to me?" Nathan interrupted her thoughts. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Susan sighed. "Sorry, Nate, I got distracted. How many demons were there?"

"Just the one," Nathan told her. "Don't worry, he's gone, we vanquished him, but we really need to get some kind of demonic alarm system. We should've thought of this before the twins were born. So do you think you can come and help us?"

Susan let out a sigh, glancing towards the clock. "I've got a class in about an hour and I'll get out in about two hours, so I can be home by then. Is that okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah, sure, no problem, Sue," Nathan said. "Luke and I'll try to come up with something while you're gone. Just don't take any detours on your way home," he ordered her. "'Cause we're going to need all of the help that we can get."

"Okay, I hate to break it to you, little brother, but I'm the older one, I'm supposed to tell _you_ what to do, not the other way around." Nathan laughed. "I'll see you in a couple of hours."

"All right, see you." Susan hung up her cell and went back into the café, where Karen was taking an order with Janie on her hip.

As she gave the man his order and change, Karen looked around at Susan. "Problems at home?" she asked worriedly.

"When isn't there?" Susan muttered, shaking her head. "Don't worry about it, just one little problem. Luke and Nate have already taken care of it." She paused and looked at Karen. "Um . . . Karen, can I ask you something. Woman to woman?" she added.

"Of course," Karen said with a warm smile at her son's half-sister. "You know I'm always open for a woman to woman chat. Come on, Susan, sit down," she instructed and Susan took a seat at one of the stools across from the older woman. "Now, what's going on?"

"Well . . . when you found out that you were pregnant with Lucas, how did you go about telling Dan?" Susan asked her.

Karen let out a sigh. "I, um . . . well, I was late for about a month or two, so I took a pregnancy test. It was positive and I left it lying around. Dan came by one afternoon and found it. So I told him that I was pregnant—and by that time, I was positive that I was—and he just walked out without saying a word. I think that I knew in that moment that he wasn't going to stick around. But luckily I had Keith with me. I don't know what I would've done without him." The older woman sighed and looked at the witchlighter, who was staring at her hands carefully. "Do you think that you might be pregnant?"

Susan nodded, looking up at Karen quickly. "I'm pretty sure that I am. I was late last month too. And . . ." She shook her head wildly, tears springing into her eyes. "And I've been getting really overemotional lately. Not to mention, I've been craving the weirdest stuff." She chuckled. "I think I freaked Lucas out with the stuff I've been eating lately."

"Have you told Shawn?" Karen asked gently.

"He's off in Sweden with one of his charges and he's going to be unavailable for a couple of days," Susan muttered. That was the worst thing about dating a Whitelighter; he was never around when she needed him. "Karen, I don't know what I'm going to do. We've already got two kids in the house; Haley is this close away from a delivery and . . . and . . ."

"And you're worried about what's going to happen with demons after the baby?" Karen added.

"Yeah," Susan said quietly. "Demons came after both the twins and Wyatt _while_ they were in the womb. I guess I'm just . . . scared that I'm not strong enough. I don't know if I can _do_ this. Being a college student/waitress here at the café/Charmed One/mother. Maybe that's just one too many slashes."

Karen gently took the witchlighter's hand into hers. "Susan, listen to me," she told him. "I'm going to ask you the same thing that Keith asked me when I was pregnant with Lucas. Imagine your life ten years from now, twenty years from now. Even thirty. Picture what it's going to be like, the woman that you will be then. And think about your family. Not your brothers' families, but yours and yours alone. Who's the man that you see standing next to you? And do you see that child that you're carrying in your future?"

Susan paused, mulling this over. There was no need for that question; she had _seen_ the future before, had seen her son when he came back to save his cousin.

But even without that, there was no doubt in her mind that this child would be a part of her future. She couldn't envision a future where her baby wasn't in it.

Her thoughts drifted back to when Chris had come back from the future, right before he had gone back home with his older twin cousins, Keith and Peyton.

**Flashback**

_"Okay, well, come right back if something happens, all right? If anything changed that wasn't supposed to, come right back here," she ordered. "I mean it," she added when Keith chuckled. _

_"Yes, ma'am," Keith said meekly. _

_"Yes, Aunt Susan," Peyton said, grinning. _

_"Yes, Mom," Chris said, knowing perfectly well that his mom just didn't want them to go. "Oh, and by the way," he added, "if you guys want to get me an older brother, I'll be cool with that." _

_Shawn chuckled as Susan shook her head. "Well, we'll see, young man," she said dryly._

**End Flashback**

"I want this baby in my future," Susan answered quietly, shaking her head. She was smiling, tears in her eyes, but still smiling. "I want him to be a part of my life. Even if I have to sacrifice something for him, I'm going to keep this baby. He's mine."

Karen smiled gently at her. "Then you need to talk to Shawn as soon as he gets back," she told him. "Trust me, the further you stretch it out, the harder it gets to say." Hoisting Janie onto her hip, she added, "Now, young lady, you go and get to class, before you're late. With the distraction that you have, you can't afford to miss any."

"Yes, ma'am," Susan said, but she was grinning. Picking up her bag from the back, she headed out from behind the counter. "Oh, and Karen?" The older woman looked at her questioningly. "Thanks for the talk."

"Don't worry about it," Karen told her. "Anytime you need to talk, I'm here. After all," she added dryly, "I am the expert on teenage pregnancy." Both of them chuckled.

"Yeah," Susan smiled as she headed out the door. "Bye." She headed down the street towards her car, climbing into it. Just as she was about to back up, she could've _sworn_ that there was somebody behind her. But as she stopped and looked around again, the woman had vanished as quickly as she had come.

Susan's heart pounded in her chest as she shook her head. "Okay, I'm losing it," she muttered as she backed up, heading towards the University of Tree Hill. "Definitely losing it."


	3. Susan's Mother

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Three: Susan's Mother

Lucas was biting the end off of his pencil, his brow furrowed in frustration at trying to come up with a protection spell, when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," he said, relieved at the interruption. Shaking his head, he got to his feet and headed towards the foyer.

In the past couple of hours since the demons had attacked his daughter and son in their nursery, he and Nathan had been trying to come up with a protection spell or alarm system for demons. But every spell that he had attempted hadn't even worked and Nathan had just gone up to the Book of Shadows to see if any of their ancestors had written anything in the Book that would be of any help.

Opening the door, Lucas almost jumped out of his skin when he saw the young woman who was standing in the doorway and he uttered a curse under his breath, the first time that he had swore since the twins were born. Everyone under the Scott household had agreed to refrain from swearing in front of the babies, not wanting them to pick up on the bad habits.

The woman that was standing in the doorway was almost the exact image of his sister, save for instead of his sister's dark curls she had a handsome chestnut brown. But her blue-green eyes were the same ones as his sister's and her features were a near-replica of Susan's.

However, this woman was considerably older than his sister and had an air of authority floating about her. Indeed, this woman's eyes bore a deep wisdom and maturity beyond her years, one who had seen more time than her age deemed. She had a great sense of commanding, as though expecting her orders to be obeyed without question, a woman who would anticipate instant obedience from all. Lucas had no doubt in his mind whatsoever that this was his sister's own mother, Elizabeth Dawson, having met the woman's past version almost a year earlier.

He must've looked shocked, because Elizabeth smiled wryly. "I can see that I was not expected here," she said lightly. "Let us assume, however, that you are not going to let an old woman stand outside all day, Lucas?"

"Right," Lucas said, an embarrassed chuckle escaping from him as he pushed the door wider. "Sorry about that. Please, come in."

Elizabeth stepped into the door and Lucas closed the door behind him. "Um . . . Susan's not here right now," he told her, saying the first thing that came to mind.

"I know that," Elizabeth told him. "I saw her as she was leaving your mother's café to go to school." She smiled then. "It's a relief to know that her education did not suffer when she came here. But actually, Lucas, I am here because—"

She was cut off when Nathan appeared at the top of the stairs, rambling on without any notice of their guest. "Okay, so I'm not finding anything in the Book on alarm systems or anything. I mean, there are some crystals that we could use, I guess, but I really don't think that we should set up a crystal cage around the nursery. What if the twins got out and then electrocuted themselves? It'd be just a big mess; not to mention what we would tell the police when they found out what happened." His gaze suddenly snapped onto Elizabeth, finally noticing her and his mouth twisted into a surprised expression. "Wait a minute," he said slowly, his head swivelling around to look at Lucas. "Isn't that . . .?" His dark blue gaze was filled with shock.

"Susan's mom," Lucas supplied dryly.

"Though she seemed familiar," Nathan agreed, descending the stairs. "Hi, nice to see you again."

"Yes, a pleasure again, Mr. _Halliwell_," Elizabeth said, a teasing grin appearing on her face. Nathan grinned, glancing at Lucas momentarily. "Now, as I was just saying to your brother, I am here because the Elders sent me."

"The Elders sent you?" Lucas echoed, looking in confusion at his brother. "Hang on a second, aren't you supposed to be dead? Why would the Elders send a ghost down here?"

Elizabeth chuckled. "And what, Lucas Scott, makes you think that I _am_ a ghost?" she asked him. Both brothers looked at each other, then at the woman. "Actually, I work with Haley and Shawn . . . again," she added as an afterthought.

"They made you a Whitelighter again?" Nathan asked. Elizabeth nodded. "Okay, now I understand. Kind of."

"So, why did the Elders send you down here, anyway?" Lucas wanted to know, looking at his sister's mother. "Why didn't They just ask Haley or Shawn to tell us anything?"

Nathan's gaze sharpened with his brother's words. "They did," he said in realisation. "Right before the demon attacked this morning, Haley got a call from the Elders. I guess she forgot to answer it."

"Not to best idea, to be sure," Elizabeth agreed, a quirky smile crossing her face. "They aren't exactly _thrilled_ with the idea of a Charmed One breeding with a Whitelighter." She rolled her eyes up at the ceiling, clearly saying what she thought of that particular idea.

"So why aren't They down here doing their best to break us up?" Nathan said bitterly. "It wouldn't be the first time that They've tried to break us up." He thought, briefly, of the tour that Haley had been forced to go on because of Them. Once they found out that one of their Whitelighters had married a Charmed One, they had sent her on a tour, trying to split the two of them up.

"Well, They actually threw out that rule about a year ago," Elizabeth answered. "Because of your father and me being together." Lucas frowned in confusion. "When the Elders realised that They needed Susan to create the Charmed Ones, They sat down and discussed it. And while there are Whitelighters and Elders who believe that witches and Whitelighters shouldn't be together, the vote was outnumbered and the rule was abolished."

"Seems like the Elders did _one_ thing right," Nathan grumbled. "That's a first."

Elizabeth's lips turned upwards. "I take it that the Elders aren't too highly favoured in this household?"

"You should hear your daughter talk about them," Lucas said with a sigh. "She makes Nathan's opinions about Them seem flattering." Elizabeth smiled again. "Now, um . . . Ms. Dawson, why exactly did the Elders send you down here?"

"Ah, yes. Well, for starters, I'm here to help you, since your Whitelighter is currently stuck in Sweden and Haley isn't in the best position to be orbing anywhere, being with child. Besides," she added, "you're not going to have the ability much longer to do anything magical. And you can just call me Elizabeth, Lucas, there's no need for formality here. After all," she added gently, "since you are kin to my daughter, we are family."

"That's a good point," Nathan agreed. But Lucas had his mind on something else Elizabeth had said.

"What do you mean that we're not going to have the ability to do anything magical for much longer?" Lucas asked.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to explain when a shriek came from the kitchen. Acting on instinct, Lucas lunged for the kitchen to see a demon standing there with a fireball in his hands.

But just as he was about to launch it onto Lucas, it automatically went out in his hands. The demon cursed as he looked down at it.

"Well, it is a good thing that it's a level playing field," Elizabeth commented. Lucas understood her comment a moment later when he flung his hand towards the demon and nothing happened. "No magic for awhile, boys," she told them when Lucas looked at her in horror.

"Then we'll just have to do things the old fashioned way," Nathan growled. "Second demon in one day, we must be getting popular in the Underworld."

"I'm not sure that it's us that's getting popular," Lucas muttered, eyeing Haley. His sister-in-law shot him a confused look, which became more profound when she saw Elizabeth, but the eldest Charmed One ignored it as he seized a knife off the counter and planted it in the demon's chest, causing him to howl and screech.

But unlike all the other demons that they battled over the past year, the demon dropped down onto the ground without the body cleaning up after itself, a thick gooey yellow paste spreading around its body, looking like it could be the demon's _blood_.

"Oh, gross!" Nathan complained, wrinkling his nose at the dead demon. "What are we supposed to do with that now?"

Lucas finally looked towards Elizabeth as he surveyed the demon. "Is this what you meant when you said that we weren't going to have anything to do with magic for awhile?" he asked.

--

Susan let out a deep breath as she finally got out of class and headed towards her car. As much as she had tried to, she couldn't get the image of the woman that she had seen earlier out of her mind. The tiny glimpse that she had caught of her hadn't been enough to let her know who the woman was, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen that woman somewhere before.

Just as she headed towards her car in the parking lot, her cell phone starting ringing, echoing throughout the lot. Susan shivered slightly before she balanced her bag and purse on her shoulder, reaching for her cell and answering it.

"Hey, Sue, are you on your way home? Because we've kind of got some problems here," Lucas said before she could even utter a hello. "And we really need your help for it."

"Hi, big brother, I'm fine, thank you. And you?" Susan asked in deadpan delivery, tossing her purse and bag into the passenger seat before closed the door behind her, leaning against the car.

Lucas let out an exasperated sigh. "Sue, this is serious, we really need you home. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary since you left? Demons attack you?" His tone portrayed a level of grimness she rarely heard in her older brother.

"Luke, I've been in classes since I left the café and demons usually try to avoid exposure as much as we do," Susan pointed out. "So, no, I have not seen or heard anything abnormal. Why? What's going on?"

Her brother heaved a sigh. "Sue, are you alone?"

"Yes. Well, I'm in the parking lot, but there's nobody else here," Susan answered, casting a careful glance around. "Wait a minute, there is a guy heading towards the exit."

"Great! Try and freeze him."

Susan's brow furrowed in confusion, but nevertheless did as her brother requested. Flicking her wrist towards the guy, she attempted to use her freezing power on him, but to her astonishment, he remained mobile. "What the heck?" she muttered, her blue-green eyes wide.

As if sensing her gaze, the guy's eyes turned towards her and she quickly looked away, frowning. "Luke, what's going on?" she demanded, covering her mouth with the mouthpiece.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Sue," Lucas explained. "Magic's gone out in the world. There's a Whitelighter down here because Haley couldn't orb Up There after They summoned here and then the demon attacked."

Susan stopped where she was, not sure if she had heard her brother right. "Wait a minute, what did you just say?" she asked slowly. "Magic has gone _out_ in the world?"

"Yep." She could almost see her brother running his hand through his hair in frustration. "This Whitelighter isn't going to tell us anything until you get here because she doesn't want to explain this fifty times. Sue, you really need to get down here and besides . . ." He took a deep breath. "You might actually want to see her."

Susan took a deep breath as he said that. "Luke," she whispered, "who is this Whitelighter?" She was pretty sure that she knew the answer a moment before he said it.

"It's your mom, Sue."


	4. The Prophecy

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: The Prophecy

"Mom?" Susan whispered, her knees shaking underneath her. She grasped the car door for supported. "But she—she . . . Luke . . . Mom . . . I saw her . . . what happened?" The last two words were the only ones that she could string together into a complete sentence.

"They made her a Whitelighter again, Sue," Lucas said gently, his voice soothing, trying to calm her down. Susan doubted that was possible, but she took a deep breath, more for the baby's sake than for hers. "And now she's here to explain why magic has suddenly gone out in the world."

"What about Brooke, does she know what's going on?" Susan asked, running her hands through her hair. She could feel them shaking.

"No, and I'm not going to tell her," Lucas answered. "She's got enough to worry about today besides supernatural stuff. Now, listen, you get into your car and you drive, _carefully_, over here and we'll explain everything." He paused. "And Sue, be careful. You're not the only one you need to worry about, you know."

"Right, I have to worry about the two of you and the fact that my mother has suddenly reappeared from the dead and my nephews and niece constantly being hunted by the Underworld. Not to mention, my sisters-in-law and boyfriend who is currently on the other side of the globe."

"That's not what I meant, Susan." Lucas was keeping his voice down, as though trying to keep whatever he was about to say from whoever might be listening in the manor. "Actually, I was talking about you being safe . . . and having to worry about keeping Nate's and my nephew safe." There was a dead silence through the air as he said those words.

"How do you know?" Susan breathed. "Did—did your mom tell you?" She seriously doubted that, but she had to ask. There was nobody else that she had told about her pregnancy.

"Sue, Nate might be clueless sometimes, but I'm not. You've been eating weird kinds of stuff that you would never in your life have considered eating before now. I think by now I know you well enough to judge you on that. Not to mention, you cry if somebody so much as kills a fly. You've been a mix of emotions lately and it changes without warning. I'm not an idiot, you know." He paused. "You told my mom about this?"

"I—I just needed a woman to talk to whose had some experience in this kind of stuff," Susan complained. "Luke, can you honestly blame me?"

"No," Lucas laughed. "I don't. But you really need to tell Shawn, okay? Sooner the better."

"Kind of hard when he's on the other side of the globe, Luke. And this is not the kind of conversation that I want to have on the phone. Plus the phone bill would run sky-high if I made a call to Sweden. Besides, I wouldn't even know where to call. It'll have to wait until he gets back." She paused. "How long is he going to be unable to orb back, anyway?"

"Hard to say," Lucas answered. "Could be a couple of hours or a couple of days. Now, young lady," he said, managing to sound stern and "older brotherly". "You get home and we will talk about this later."

"Oh and this is coming from the man who got his high school girlfriend pregnant when they were seventeen. With _twins_, no less," Susan commented, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, Luke, I don't think you or Nathan are in any position to talk to me about this or give me some long-winded lecture about it." She smiled, her point proven.

"Didn't you two at least use protection?" Lucas asked her.

"Have you met our father?" Susan pointed out. Lucas laughed. "Of course we were using protection, Lucas Eugene Scott. But we are both old enough to know that it doesn't always work."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. No form of birth control is absolute except for abstinence. Now where have I heard that before?" he wondered with some consideration.

"Probably from your little sister," Susan answered with a grin. "Luke, I'll call you when I get back there okay?" She paused. "Is Mom really there?" she asked softly, hardly daring to believe it.

"Yeah, little sister, she is," Lucas answered. Susan smiled broadly; she loved it whenever she heard that affectionate term that Lucas applied only to her. Janie had that title, too, but he never applied it to her. He always called the youngest Scott his little angel.

Which, now that she thought about it, was kind of ironic considering that it was _Susan_ and not Janie that was half-Whitelighter and therefore half-angel. Oh, well, she thought as she hung up the phone. At least some part of Keith was still with them.

Just as she was about to climb into the car, Susan sensed rather than saw someone sneak up behind her. She reached inside her purse for a potion, but the intruder was too quick for her. Before she could even react, the back of her mind exploded with pain and she saw stars in front of her eyes. Then she dropped down into a deep, black abyss as the second-born Charmed One slipped into unconsciousness.

--

Lucas hit the off button on the cordless and set it on the counter, heading into the living room, where Nathan and Elizabeth were currently trying to push the dead demon body into a closet. "Okay, I think that this takes the phrase 'skeletons in the closet' to a whole new level," he commented dryly.

"Very funny," Nathan said as they successfully closed the door, but the yellow pasty blood was still oozing out onto the carpet. "This is disgusting. Haley is going to have a fit when she sees this."

"When I see what?" Haley demanded, coming into the living room. "Nobody ever really explained what is going on. Elizabeth, what are you doing down here?"

"Apparently, she down here to help with something because magic has gone out in the world," Lucas explained. "So why exactly _has_ magic gone out of the world?" he asked, directing this question towards Elizabeth. "And how exactly are we supposed to get it back?"

Elizabeth sighed. "It's an ancient prophecy, told long ago by an apothecary. On the night when three planets burn as one over a sky of dancing lights, magic will rest on a holy day to welcome a twice-blessed child. Only when the child is born will magic return to the world. Which should be tonight," she added, gesturing towards Haley's enormous stomach. Automatically, Haley's hands went over her stomach protectively.

Lucas and Nathan stared at their sister's mother in astonishment. "What does all of that mean?" Nathan demanded incredulously. "Three planets burn as one? Sky of dancing lights?" His dark blue eyes were wide with confusion and disbelief.

"The Aurora Borealis," Haley exclaimed. "It's been occurring over the past couple of days. Actually, the newspaper said that it was going to be brightest tonight."

"And today is the Festival of Lights, Imbolc," Elizabeth added with a nod. When the two witches looked at each other in surprise, she shook her head. "Didn't you know that?"

"Uh . . . Susan's the one who really pays attention to that stuff," Nathan said apologetically. He looked towards Lucas. "Where is she, anyway?"

"She's on her way," Lucas answered, leaning against the doorframe. "I told her what's going on about magic going on and I also told her that you're here, Elizabeth," he added. The Whitelighter nodded, looking perturbed for a moment, but the look immediately passed.

"You were on the phone way too long just to be talking about that," Haley said, frowning at her brother-in-law. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine, just dealing with some stuff," Lucas answered truthfully. He wasn't about to tell his brother, sister-in-law, and his sister's mother that his sister was pregnant. That was _Susan's_ responsibility.

"Okay, let's back up to that twice-blessed bit. What exactly does _that_ mean?" Nathan asked, looking at Elizabeth.

"Half-witch, half-Whitelighter. Or in the case, the son of a Whitelighter and a Charmed One," Elizabeth explained.

"I'm still a little confused, though," Nathan complained. "Why is it that magic shutting down, it shouldn't really be doing that? And why was a prophecy written about my son?" He was bordering on alarm and panic as he looked at them.

"Chris and Keith did say that Wyatt was going to be incredibly powerful, Nate," Lucas reasoned.

Elizabeth frowned, looking at the eldest Charmed One. "Chris and Keith?" she echoed.

"Keith is my son," Lucas explained. "He's upstairs with his twin sister Peyton. And Chris is Susan's future son. The two of them came here awhile back from the future and . . . that's a long story," he added. "Anyway, they said something about Wyatt being really powerful."

"Yes," Elizabeth said, looking surprised that they knew that much. "Very powerful. He's going to be pretty much invincible. Haven't you realised that Haley wasn't able to be hurt throughout her pregnancy? She had a shield and was self-healing?"

"So, that's just Wyatt's powers."

"No." Elizabeth shook her head. "No, he is much more powerful than that. Your son, Nathan, is destined to be the most powerful being in the universe. The son of the youngest Charmed One will be more powerful than any witch, demon, or magical being that has ever existed. _That_ is why magic has gone out in the world."

The eldest and youngest Charmed Ones stared at her as the mother of the twice-blessed child looked shocked at this information.


	5. Susan's Capture

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Five: Susan's Capture

As her fuzzy and muddled brain slowly began to regain consciousness, the first thing that Susan was aware of was that the back of her head _really_ hurt. It took a few minutes for memories to catch up with her and slowly she remembered being hit in the back of her head. She let out a soft groan, barely audible, as she heard voices nearby.

"Sure that you didn't kill her?"

"Of course not, idiot. It would take a lot more than just a knock on the back of the head to kill a witch, especially a Charmed One. Unfortunately, it's not that easy."

"If you say so. Personally, I'm not so sure that this plan is going to work. No demon has ever survived going up against the Charmed Ones before. And now, we don't even have our powers to fight them with."

"Yes, but neither do they. We'll see how long these witches last when they don't have their magic to help them. So after the witch regains consciousness, you'll be going to the Scott manor and tell them that we have kidnapped their precious sister."

"And when they come after her, you'll come and capture the pregnant Whitelighter until she gives birth to the twice-blessed baby. Yes, I know, I've heard the plan enough. I just have my doubts about it actually working. You can't blame me for being a little cautious. It's part of what has kept me alive all of these years."

"Hmm. Yes, a worthy feat. Fortunately, you're not going to be alive much longer to tell others about that achievement." A low chuckle emerged from the owner of the voice. "And I think that she's finally starting to wake up. Wake up, little witch, if you ever want to see your brothers again."

Just as she felt a knife pressed against her throat, Susan instinctively feared for her baby and her eyes flew open, staring up at the demon that was standing before her.

He smiled maliciously. "Good to see you awake," he said calmly. "Don't go anywhere." Susan thought numbly where she could go while she was sitting in a chair with her hands tied behind her back. Even if she could freeze them, there was still the problem of her actually getting out of the bonds that held her there.

"All right, now go to the manor and alert the brothers," the demon told his assistant. Susan blinked at the other demon; he looked vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't remember where from. "When her brothers come and rescue her, they'll be walking right into a trap."

"As you wish, sir," the other demon said as he bowed and shimmered out. As soon as he was gone, the demon that seemed to be the leader turned back to the witchlighter.

"Now, my young Charmed One, I hope that you enjoy this dark and desolate place," he said, gesturing around them. "Because as soon as your little nephew is born, this is going to be your home for a very long time."

"Don't bet on it," Susan growled, moving her hands to try and free them from the bonds. "Obviously you've never dealt with us before, because if you did, then you'd know it's useless."

"Scotts, you're all the same. I met your father once, a long time ago. He, too, had a certain . . . arrogance. One that he undoubtedly passed on to his only daughter. And hopefully you will have inherited his disloyalty to his own kind as well." Susan spat at his feet, furious with his remark.

"I am _nothing_ like my father," she growled. "The only decent thing that he has ever done was save my brother's life two years ago. But Dan and I are nothing alike. I would _never_ abandon my responsibilities as a witch and to my family."

"Humph." The demon only looked at her sceptically, obviously not amused or believed her comments. "I see that you have a few issues with your father, Miss Scott."

"We've got the whole subscription." Susan looked away, trying to clear her head somewhat. If she kept her mouth going like this, it was only going to get her attacked. And there were just as many mortal ways to lose a baby as there were demonic ones.

_It's all right, sweetie,_ Susan thought, trying to converse silently with her unborn child. _Don't be afraid. I'm here. Everything's going to be all right. I'm your mother and I'm here._

Although she hadn't really expected a reaction, she felt the distinct flutter of a baby's movement inside of her womb and she gasped aloud, almost astounded by the action. She smiled, knowing that it was her baby's way of telling her that he, too, was there with her. Even in this dark place, she had her son with her. There was no doubt in her mind that this child was going to be a boy. She would have a little boy, just like she had foreseen. Chris was going to have an older brother, just like he had wanted.

Turning her attention back to the subject a hand as the demon twirled the athame around in his hand, Susan remembered what he had said about Wyatt. "What do you want my nephew for, anyway?" she wanted to know, keeping a careful eye out for any means of escape.

The demon stared at her. "What do we _want_ him for?" he echoed, looking at her as if she were daft. "Stop jesting, witch."

"I'm not jesting." Susan rolled her eyes, wondering how long she was going to have to put up with this demon. "Why would you want him for instead of trying to get rid of him?" Her head still really hurt from being hit in the back of the head and she wasn't thinking too clearly. Dimly, she remembered what Shawn had said about Wyatt, what he had heard Chris and Keith talking about while they were here in the past. Some kind of prophecy thing.

"Try and get rid of him!" The demon leaped to his feet. "Believe me, witch, if we don't succeed in our mission, then we most certainly will be getting rid of him. Don't tell me that you've never heard of the prophecy?"

"Heard it insinuated, but never really found out the specifics," Susan replied. "What's this got to do with my nephew?"

Standing up, the demon regarded her, trying to decide whether she was lying or not. "Near a thousand years ago, the demons of old killed an ancient apothecary and, upon the old man's death, learned of a child that would be the most powerful being of all time. The son of a Charmed One and a Whitelighter, he would be invincible, a creature of pure good magic. And this child would be our end . . . the end of the demonic world as we knew it. There would be none to stop him."

Susan raised her eyebrows, shocked. She couldn't believe that her little brother's son would pack that much power. "Doesn't explain why you wouldn't try and get rid of him, though," she pointed out. The demon scowled at her, obviously irritated with the interruption. She smiled innocently, giving a shrug to say she had nothing up her sleeve.

"We don't dare try and get rid of him, because we want him for our own," the demon said at long last. "He will be the Source's heir, raised in the demonic world and following the path that his grandfather took. No doubt he'll be easy to corrupt, with him being the grandson of Dan Scott."

Susan almost lost it at that remark, struggling to free herself from her bonds and almost succeeding. The demon was upon her at once, holding the athame at her throat.

"Now, now, Miss Scott—"

"Dawson," she threw back. "It's _Dawson_-Scott." Never again, she vowed, would she let anybody call her anything but her true name. She was sick of being referred to as either her mother's daughter or her father's. She was both of theirs and would be referred to as such.

And besides, as far as she was concerned, she couldn't have held the Scott name for this long if she had gotten it from Dan. No, as far as she was concerned, she had gotten the Scott name from her uncle. The man who had shown her kindness and courage, led her into the world of magic, and led her to her brothers, her family. The man that was her father in every sense of the word.

"You don't want to get yourself killed, now do you?" he commented. "I would hate to see those brothers of yours so . . . devastated when they found out that their sister was killed."

_And not just me, but my son as well,_ Susan thought, conceding his point. She had to be careful. Taking a deep, unsteady breath, she closed her eyes, counting silently underneath her breath to calm herself. When she felt relatively calm, she opened them, returning her gaze to the demon.

"Who's this Source that I keep hearing mentioned by you demons?" she wanted to know, curiosity filling through her as she looked towards the demon. "This isn't the first time that I've heard him mentioned and I would kind of like to know who you think will be raising _my_ nephew."

The demon smirked. "Why, the Source of All Evil is our leader, of course. The King of the Underworld, for lack of a better explanation. Even your father was answerable to him. No one disobeys him and lives to tell the tale."

"Then I guess that my brothers and I will just have to kill him."

"It wouldn't do you much good. Even if you managed to survive killing the Source and taking him down, there would simply be another demon to take his place. I wouldn't recommend it; this Source has been one of the most powerful ones ever."

Susan shook her head, mulling this over. A Source of All Evil . . . she had never even considered that there might be an evil ruler of the Underworld that they would have to face. _Now_ she was really worried about leaving her boys without a mother.

Ever since she had first seen the future with Nathan's children, Lucas's daughters, and her son in it, her greatest fear had always been that she was going to leave her sons without a mother, just as she was left without one and just as Janie was left without a father. She didn't want to have her destiny end with leaving them alone, to have her boys to grow up without her.

"So I take it that this Source is the one who has sent all of these demons after us, trying to get rid of us?" Susan asked. The demon only looked at her. "Just so he could get my nephew. Because of this whole prophecy thing? And what makes you so sure that it's my nephew that the prophecy refers to?"

"The pattern matches the prophecy. Firstly, there will be a sky of dancing lights. The Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, is occurring. Secondly, magic will rest on a holy day. The Wiccan Festival of Lights falls today—"

"Imbolc," Susan moaned, remembering the holiday. In everything that had been happening lately, she had almost forgotten about the festival. "But even if that is a mystical sign, those usually come in threes, not twos."

"Correct," the demon answered, grinning maliciously. "And thirdly, three plants burn as one. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are aligned. I'm afraid that only happens once every three hundred years."

Susan gulped, staring up at the demon. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. Everything fit. Everything fit what he was telling her, and it coincided with what Chris and Keith had mentioned while they were here seven months ago.

"It will not be long before the mother goes into labour," the demon said, smiling sadistically. "And then the child will be ours . . . and ultimately doom the entire world. You won't be able to stop him or us. He will be your death and with the death of the Charmed Ones, evil will _finally_ prevail over good. We will finally have triumph after centuries of fighting witches and all of your good magic."

He started to laugh as Susan felt her fear heighten, both for the safety of her nephew and the safety of the future.

AN: Hey, guys, thanks for keeping up with me so far in the story and I know that it is a little close to Charmed, but as soon as Wyatt is born, I'll be springing into my own story, I promise. Now, I'm sorry to be complaining, but I really need more than one review per chapter to keep me happy. Forgive me, but it's not enough to keep me inspired. If three people could review every time I update, I will be a happy woman.

Thank you!

Lady Dawson


	6. Racing Against Time

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Six: Racing Against Time

"What is _taking_ her so long?" Lucas muttered as he pulled aside the curtain, peering out into the driveway to see if his sister had arrived yet. But her car was nowhere in sight and no dark-haired witchlighter was walking up the driveway.

He bit his lip in worry as he let the curtain fall and he headed back to the living room. It had been hours since he had called his sister and she'd said that she was on her way home, but she hadn't shown up yet.

"Am I the only one who thinks that something has happened to her?" Lucas asked, leaning against the doorframe. His brother and sister-in-law shook their heads and Elizabeth looked worried at that statement. "Great. So what kind of trouble could she possibly have gotten herself into?"

"Knowing us, probably a lot," Nathan pointed out. "Maybe one of us should go and look for her."

"There's no need for that, boy," an unfamiliar voice spoke up. The entire family jumped to their feet and looked at the demon that had appeared in the living room. He smiled maliciously, and held his hands up, showing he had nothing up his sleeve.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Lucas demanded, his hands curling into fists defensively.

"Tell me something, lads, have you ever heard the phrase, 'don't kill the messenger'?" the demon responded dryly. Lucas glared at him, but gave a slow nod. "Well, that phrase is about to become true in about five seconds. I'm here to inform you that my master has taken your sister and is currently holding her hostage in the Underworld."

Lucas froze. Nathan let out an exclamation. Haley went dead white and sank onto the couch. Elizabeth's face turned to one that was bordering on fury and outrage.

"Where is she?!" Nathan exploded, taking three steps towards the demon, who backed away from the infuriated youngest Charmed One. "What has he done with our sister?"

"Nothing, at the moment," the demon said with a careless shrug. "As long as you two go down there and help put magic back into the world, there should be no problems."

Nathan looked towards his brother, who glanced back at the youngest Scott, frowning slightly. Then it clicked; the demons thought they knew nothing about the prophecy.

"So tell me this," Lucas said, feigning innocence. "Why _has_ magic gone out of the world? Some kind of imbalance between good and evil? Is that it?"

"Of course," the demon agreed. "And we have to correct this imbalance before it is too late. Which is why we captured your sister to get you to come down so that we can negotiate and fix the problem. Now, if you could just follow me, we'll go to—"

"All right, hold it, pal!" Haley snapped, walking over to him. "I don't know what kind of game you're running here, but magic doesn't go out of the world because of some balance problem. They—"

"All right, Hales, calm down," Lucas intervened, pulling his sister-in-law away from the demon. He glanced back at the messenger, trying to decide what to do. He had no doubt that they actually _had_ Susan and from the look on Nathan's face, neither did his brother. But the problem was, why did they really want them to come? "Could you give us a minute?"

The demon's face immediately soured, but he headed into the kitchen, leaving the four to talk in private.  
"It's a trap," Nathan immediately said.

"Obviously," Lucas agreed. "But the question is, why are they luring us away from the manor? Because of the prophecy?"

"Undoubtedly," Elizabeth mused. "They must know how powerful he's going to be and want to kidnap him away from you, so that they can raise him in the demonic world. Word must have gotten to them that he will be the end of the Underworld."

Haley's hands went over her stomach protectively. "No way!" she exclaimed. "There's no way that I am going to let them lay a hand on my son! They can't have him!"

"Of course not," Nathan agreed. "Hales, we're not going to let them take him, okay? I promise, everything is going to be okay." He wrapped his arms comfortingly around her and she relaxed slightly.

"Okay, but how are we going to get Susan out of there?" Lucas asked, keeping an eye on the demon. "We can't just leave her there; she'll be in trouble without her powers." _Not to mention our nephew. _

Suddenly, he noticed that Haley was looking at him severely. "You _know_, don't you?" she asked softly. "About Susan?"

Lucas stared at her. "Okay, how did you know?" he demanded. "Susan said she hasn't told anybody, other than Mom. How did you find out?"

"Brooke found a pregnancy test in the bathroom," Haley answered with a shrug. "And she told me about it."

"Whoa, wait a minute, hold it," Nathan interrupted this discussion with wide eyes. "Are you telling me that Susan, the only Scott with her head on straight, is pregnant?" He looked between his wife and brother in exasperation. "And how is it that I'm the last to know?"

"Trust me, you're not," Elizabeth said quietly. She shook her head. "I will _definitely_ be having a talk with that girl when you two rescue her." She sighed. "All right, here's what we'll do. Haley and I will stay here, you two go and be prepared for anything, and then get back here as soon as you can."

Lucas hesitated, but nodded. "All right, I'll call Brooke and have her come back here to help. We're gonna need her help."

Just as he was about to walk into the kitchen, the demon appeared in the doorway. "So," he asked, "have you reached a verdict?"

--

As he followed their demon guide through the mansion that was supposedly holding their sister, Nathan's thoughts drifted back to Haley who was, at this very moment, still at home with Elizabeth. He hated to be so far away from her right now, especially considering that she was on the verge of giving birth to their son. And _especially_ since that the demonic world was after him and wanted him to be raised in darkness.

Nathan actually wanted to vomit at the very thought of it. How ironic was it that he, the Charmed One who had be predisposed to evil by being raised by Dan and who had put Lucas through torture for almost seventeen years and had been a complete jerk to almost everyone before he'd met and fallen in love with Haley, was the one to have a child who demons wanted to raise as evil? This had to be some kind of karmic payback.

"How much farther is it?" he asked, looking ahead at their guide, who hadn't once looked back at the brothers as he had led them to the mansion that they were meeting his master at. It was an old, crumbling, broken-down house that had long ago been decided that it wasn't fit to live in anymore. Some old rich guy had bought it years ago, but hadn't done anything with it. Now, Nathan realised that it was probably demons that had taken over the place.

"Not very," their guide answered without looking at him. "He awaits in the dining room. Undoubtedly, your sister is there with him."

Nathan glanced sideways at Lucas, who glanced back at his brother. _There is no way that this is going to end well,_ he thought miserably, wishing more than ever that magic was still in the world. At least then he'd still have the _option_ of trying to get a premonition to see if everything would be okay.

As they walked through a long corridor, their guide finally pushed open a door and the double doors swung open, revealing a dirty and dingy-looking room. In the middle of the room, a demon was twirling a knife in his hands and sitting in a chair with her hands bound together behind her, was _Susan_.

She looked terrible. Her clothes were a mess, her eyes slightly unfocused, and her usual mass of curls was even more chaotic than usual. Her blue-green eyes flew towards them and they widened slightly. She looked on the borderline of panic.

"Guys, it's a trap! Hit the ground!"

Nathan didn't stop to think. Hurdling himself towards the grimy floor, he had barely hit it when something soared over his head, barely missing him. It was all he could do to stop himself from letting out an exclamation as he smelled burnt hair in the air.

Pushing himself off the ground, he saw Lucas getting to his feet, looking around them. Nathan cursed under his breath as he saw the demons that were crowding around them with various weapons in their hands.

"This isn't good," he said, glancing at his brother. The demon that seemed to be in charge had disappeared, undoubtedly going to the manor to steal the baby. "Any ideas?"

Lucas looked at him, then towards Susan. "Think you can hold your own while I get Susan out?" he asked.

"Yeah." Nathan nodded, inwardly squirming as the demons crowded around them. "Yeah, don't worry, big brother. I can hold my own."

His brother smirked. "Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've got the history to prove you can throw a pretty good punch. Just watch out for the—"

A demon moved forward and an axe came barrelling down between them, forcing the brothers to jump apart and Lucas raced towards their sister.

"Axes!" Lucas finished up as he ran towards Susan.

Nathan smiled with relief as the demon had impaled the floor with the axe. Lunging forward, he managed to knock the demon unconscious and claimed the axe for a weapon. "I like these options better," he commented as he swung it towards the demon.

Just as had happened before, instead of blowing up as was usual, the demon only dropped to the floor.

"This is something we're gonna have to clean up later," Nathan threw at his brother and sister as Lucas managed to untie Susan and get in the fight. Despite looking utterly exhausted, Susan managed to obtain a sword from one of the demons and was battling with it. Lucas had gotten his hands on a mace and was swinging it every which way he could. While Susan's attacks were proficient, as though she had been doing this for years, both his and Nathan's were clumsy and inept.

After what seemed like an eternity, Nathan finally felled the last demon and he leaned on the axe, breathing heavily. When he managed to catch his breath, he looked around at his sister.

"Hey," he said, still panting, "you all right?"

She only smiled weakly. "I'm alive and that's all I really care about. But now, we have to get back to the manor, now, because the demons—"

"Are after Nathan and Haley's baby," Lucas finished up for her.

Susan looked at him, surprised that he knew that. "Right. And Wyatt—"

"Is some prophesied twice-blessed witch and has enough power to rid the world of demons," Nathan added. "So they want to kidnap him and raise him in the demonic world."

"Yeah," Susan agreed, looking between her brothers. "And they want to turn him over to this evil ruler of the Underworld, called the Source of All Evil."

Nathan stopped, looking at his sister to see if she was joking. The look on her face was _way_ too serious to be teasing them, though.

"Okay," Lucas said, "_that_ we didn't know." He shook his head, glancing downward. "Okay, save nephew first, deal with evil demonic ruler later. Let's move it, people."

All three of them raced towards the entrance and ran to the car, probably breaking about fifteen different speed laws as they sped for the manor.

AN: Hey, guys, thanks for the reviews. As a reward and for my gratitude, I'm giving you a fast update. Now, if you want to keep me inspired, you'll keep reviewing for me. Please, anything will help. Even if you want to give me suggestions, I usually can come up with stuff. Whatever you guys want to put in.

Thanks!

Lady Dawson


	7. The Birth Begins

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Seven: The Birth Begins . . .

Brooke paced back and forth as she waited for her husband and brother-in-law to get back from rescuing her sister-in-law. "Of all days to get kidnapped, Susan," she muttered, halfway annoyed with the witchlighter. She knew that it really wasn't her fault, but she still couldn't help but feel a little fed up with her.

Elizabeth entered the living room, handing a cup of tea to Brooke. With a small sigh, Brooke accepted the brew and sipped it gingerly, the spicy smell throwing her off.

"This is the same kind of brews Susan makes," she commented, arching an eyebrow at the Whitelighter.

"Well, it should be," Elizabeth said with a small smile. "After all, I'm the one who taught her how to make them. They've recipes that have been handed down through the Dawson clan for generations."

Nodding once, the telepath sipped her tea as she glanced up the stairs, where Haley had gone to the bathroom. "I hope they're all okay," she said softly, running her hands through her dark hair. She had taken the twins over to Karen's while they dealt with Wyatt's birth and the latest dealings with the Underworld. Her mother-in-law had been happy to take them, but Brooke wondered at her ability to deal with three infants at the same time. She had enough problems with just two.

"So, Brooke," Elizabeth interrupted her thoughts, "tell me honestly. How is my daughter doing?" Her blue-green eyes, so much like Susan's, were focused on Brooke's dark ones and the telepath suppressed a sigh, looking away as she turned towards the window.

"Honestly?" she asked and Elizabeth nodded. "I really think she's struggling to hold up. I mean, Luke and I have each other, even though we've got the twins to take care of. Nathan and Haley have got each other, but she's on maternity leave right now and her Whitelighter status is on hold. Shawn's always orbing off someplace and having to take care of one of his charges. I know she knew what she was doing when she got involved with a Whitelighter, but I don't think she's doing that well with it."

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth was frowning at the telepath, a bit perturbed by her words.

"Susan probably wanted to tell Shawn about this, but she couldn't. He's halfway across the globe and . . . she can't exactly call him right now. Besides, when he finds out it . . . well, it's only going to put more pressure on the two. Even if that witch/Whitelighter rule has been dropped, how well do you think the Elders are going to respond to another Charmed baby on the horizon, who is going to be more Whitelighter than he is witch?" Brooke raised her eyebrows. "I think Susan's this close to a breakdown."

Elizabeth closed her eyes, probably about to say something when a loud thump emerged from above. Both women looked up, startled at the noise, and instantly jumped into motion.

"Haley!" Brooke shouted, pounding on the bathroom door. When a cry answered her, she backed up before slamming into the door, flinging it open.

Haley was on the floor, clutching her stomach as she looked up at the two women, pain evident in her brown eyes. A small puddle of water was lying around her and she gave them a weak, sheepish smile. "I think that I'm in labour," she whispered.

Brooke was instantly at her side, helping her up. "Okay, Hales, it's okay," she said gently. "I know it hurts, but let's get you into bed, all right?" Hoisting the Whitelighter up, she helped her walk to the bedroom with Elizabeth opening the door quickly, going downstairs to retrieve some things for the birth. "Please, hurry, you guys," she muttered.

However, when she heard an exclamation in the hallway, she whirled around at the sound, but was flung backwards in the dresser. The last thing that she remembered seeing was a demon standing above her, giving her a good kick in the head, before she lost consciousness.

The demon smirked as the telepath lay still, unconscious, on the ground. She wouldn't be bothering them for awhile and neither would the Whitelighter. His Darklighter associate had taken care of that. Hopefully, it would get rid of her for good. That Elizabeth Dawson had been trouble from day one. If it weren't for her being with Dan, then she never would have created the Charmed sister and the Charmed Ones never would've been constituted.

But then, if they hadn't, then they would have the most powerful being in the universe hours away from their clutches. Oh, well, the demon decided. He would just have to take the bad with the good.

"Brooke!" the Whitelighter exclaimed, trying to sit up in bed, but a contraction pushed her back down. "Elizabeth!" she shouted, but her fellow Whitelighter didn't appear.

"Try to relax, Mrs. Scott," the demon suggested. "Don't worry about them, they'll be fine." Well, the telepath would; he couldn't say the same for the Whitelighter. "Now, just calm down, childbirth is painful enough and we don't want to kill that little boy of yours, now do we?" He smiled at the Whitelighter's stricken expression.

_This will be a day long remembered, _he thought in triumph. _My men will take care of the powerless Charmed Ones and we will have the youngest one's twice blessed child to raise as our own. _

Oh, yes, this was going to be a day that would live forever in the minds of demons everywhere. And if they were lucky, the entire planet would remember this day as well.

--

Susan climbed out of the car as Lucas let out an exclamation, slamming the hood of his car down in anger and frustration. "Everything okay?" she asked cautiously. Her brother sent her a glare that clearly told her that everything was _not_ all right. "What's wrong with the car?"

"Battery's fried," he said, looking exasperated as Nathan climbed out too. "I can't fix it without getting a new one." He looked around at their surroundings. The way from the mansion had taken them on the back roads, but they weren't far from the manor.

"Okay, well, let's not freak out, okay?" Nathan said. "We have to get to the manor. Let's run."

"Yeah, come on, Luke, it's not that far," Susan said, reaching into the window and pulling the keys out of the ignition. "It's this way, you guys, come on. We gotta a nephew to save."

With her brothers right behind her, Susan raced in the direction of the manor, the distance shortening with every mile. But even so, all three siblings knew that they weren't going to get there in time before the demons did and stole the baby.

Just as Susan raced out into the road to cross the street, a flash of lights flew into her path, heading straight towards her. "Susan!" Lucas screamed, throwing his hand out to send his sister to safety.

But of course, with no magic, it did nothing and Susan dived out of the way just in time as the car screeched to a halt.

"Oh, god, I am so sorry, I didn't even see you," the driver exclaimed. "Are you all right, miss?"

"I'm fine," Susan said, pushing herself up and straightening. She placed her hand protectively over her stomach. _We're both fine, _she added silently.

"Really, I am so sorry," the driver apologised just as Lucas and Nathan ran over to their sister.

"Susan, didn't your mother ever teach you not to run out into the road like that?!" Lucas yelled at her, scared both for his sister and unborn nephew that she was carrying.

"Sorry, Luke, I had other things on my mind just now," Susan snapped at him, annoyed. It was at times like these when his overprotective big brother mode was _really_ annoying.

"Luke?" the driver asked, looking at the blond witch. The eldest Charmed One turned towards him. "Nathan, hey, how's it going?"

"Jake!" Lucas said, recognising him immediately. "What are you doing back in Tree Hill?"

"Long story," Jake said with a grin. "Basically, after I went after Nicki, we had to go to court again and the judge finally awarded custody of Jenny to me. That was kind of the last straw for her, so she took off. It's been about six months since I saw her. Anyway, I'm headed back here to stay with my parents while I start training as a police officer."

"Oh, god, how old is Jenny about now? Around one and a half?" Nathan asked while Susan looked between them in bewilderment.

"Hello, distracted people," Susan interrupted. "We've got somewhere we need to be and a woman in labour back at the house, so I'm sorry, but can we postpone the reunion until later?"

"A woman in labour?" Jake echoed.

"Haley," Nathan said quickly. "Our car broke down and we need to get home as soon as we can."

Asking no more questions, Jake pointed to his car. "Get in," he ordered. "Your apartment, I assume?"

"Scott manor," Lucas corrected as he slid in. Susan shook her head, climbing into the back with Nathan. Seconds later, they were racing down the road towards the Scott manor. And they would arrive not a moment too soon to save their son/nephew.


	8. Demons at the Manor

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Eight: Demons at the Manor

Nathan's heart was pounding as Jake veered into the driveway. With a quick thanks, he bolted out of the car and was about to head straight into the house when Susan seized his arm, stopping him.

"Whoa, hold it there, little brother," she ordered. "We can't just go barging in without some kind of plan. We've got to be smart about this."

"Right. Here's the plan. We go in there, vanquish the demons, you and Brooke deliver my son, and then everything will be right with the world," Nathan retorted.

"Without any magic, how are we supposed to do that?" Susan asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Magic?" Jake echoed, looking confusedly between the siblings. "What exactly are you guys, witches?"

"Yeah, actually, we are," Lucas answered, running his hand through his blond hair. "It's a long story, but magic sort of gone out of the world and we have to get in there, save Haley from some demons, then help her give birth to Nathan's son and magic will come back."

Susan glanced at her elder brother for a minute before looking at Jake. "Is this the same Jake that was on the basketball team with you guys and Peyton was heads over heels for?" she inquired.

"Same," Jake said with a small smile. "How's Peyton doing, by the way?"

Lucas went dead still; looking as though Susan had frozen him, if she could freeze her brothers, that is. The blood drained from Susan's face and she stared mutely at the front of the house. Nathan's mouth went more firm that it had been before.

"Is she okay?" Jake asked, looking worried. "What happened to her?" His brown eyes were flickering between the siblings.

Susan was the first one to become mobile. "Can we get through with this, please?" she asked quietly. "Come on, let's go around to the back and through the kitchen. Hopefully, they won't hear us coming in."

Nathan nodded as they walked around to the back of the manor, slipping through the door that went to the kitchen. "_Quick, down here_," he mouthed to everyone else, motioning them to follow. Susan nodded as she hurried down after him.

"Quickly, quickly!" Susan whispered in alarm, yanking Lucas and Jake down behind her and they ducked under the stairs, barely even breathing as footsteps climbed down.

Recognising him as the man that had disappeared at the mansion, Nathan wanted to rush forward and kill him with his own hands, but he restrained himself. Jake was staring at the demon in shock, inclining his head at him as he looked towards the siblings.

_"Is that a demon?"_ he mouthed at them. Susan nodded once, placing a finger across her lips, silencing him.

The demon looked around once at the basement. "Must've been nothing," he said slowly, walking back up the steps. "Wasn't anything! Just get back to the Whitelighter. It's not going to be long now."

It wasn't until a few minutes later that Nathan slowly let out a deep breath. "I think he's gone," he said in an undertone, about to get up and walk out of hiding when his brother reached out and grabbed his hand, stopping the youngest Charmed One.

"No, I'll go," Lucas told him. "I'm the oldest. Besides, your wife needs you alive right now, Nate."

"So does yours," Susan reminded him. Lucas only smiled at her, giving her hand a tight squeeze before moving past them and walking quickly up the stairs. Nathan noticed that he had an athame with him as he held it protectively in front of him, ready to use if need be.

Looking towards his sister, Nathan wrapped a reassuring arm around her. "Easy, sis," he muttered to her. "Try and calm down." Susan threw him a dirty look. "Okay, if you won't do it for you, will you at least do it for my nephew? Because he needs his mommy to calm down."

"Luke told you?" Susan whined. Nathan smiled at her and nodded. "Great. Why is it everybody else in the family knows before his daddy does?"

"Because Shawn's on the other side of the globe," Nathan said reasonably as Jake looked at the witchlighter expectantly.

"You're pregnant?" he asked.

"About two months," Susan answered, placing her hands over her flat stomach protectively. Lucas appeared at the bottom of the stairs again, lowering the athame.

"It's all clear," he announced. "Now, how do you suppose we vanquish these demons without any magic?" He looked around at his brother and sister, but they were about as lost as he was on that front.

"Not that I know anything about this stuff," Jake interrupted them, "but why can't we just knock them out and deal with them later?" He looked between the siblings, but Susan shook her head, though she was smiling at his input, glad he was trying to help.

"Because sometimes demons don't get knocked out," she explained. "Just like some can't be frozen. Sometimes a Power of Three spell is the only guarantee." Jake looked as though he wanted to ask, but upon reflection, decided against it.

"What about a Power of Three spell to vanquish them?" Lucas interrupted. Susan looked at him as though he were crazy.

"Uh . . . Luke, we've got no magic, no magic equals no spells. No spells equals no vanquishing," she told him, speaking as though she would to one of the twins.

Lucas only grinned. "But there is something that won't be effected by what happens on earth," he commented. "I was gonna tell you guys about this earlier, but with everything that happened, I decided to wait. Shawn left this with me," he told them, walking over to a cabinet in the basement.

"Shawn?" Jake asked. "Who's Shawn?"

"My Whitelighter boyfriend and the father of my child," Susan answered dully. "What was this about, Luke?"

Her elder brother held up a pouch. "Unicorn dust," he answered. "I guess he knew that magic was going to be out of the world and he gave this to me in case we needed it. In case he wasn't here. And unicorns are made of pure magic, so they aren't effected by the no magic thing going on. So if we write a spell, sprinkle them with the dust, we'll be able to vanquish them."

"Suddenly, this is feeling very _Peter Pan_," Susan said dryly. "We sprinkle them with pixie dust and they fly off to Neverland, right?" She was grinning, but her brothers both stared at her before looking at each other. Jake, however, smirked at the reference.

"We should get her to a hospital and have them analysis her sanity, Luke," Nathan observed, glancing at their brother.

"Well, she is pregnant, so I think she's got a good enough excuse for the insanity," Lucas replied in deadpan delivery.

Susan glared at them. "You know, if I could _freeze_ the two of you, then I would," she said scathingly. "_Often_."

Without another word, she stalked over to the table and pulled a pad of paper and a pen out of her purse. "Now, who wants to come up with the spell?" she asked, glancing at the pair of them. "Because all three of us know that you two are much better at the spell writing than I am."

"You're a witch who can't write spells?" Jake asked with a smile. "Isn't that a bit off the category?"

"I can write spells," Susan said icily. "I'm just not as good at it as these two idiots." She gestured towards her brothers. "My speciality is potions. Which is why I get stuck making the potions for every vanquish that we encounter."

Nathan made a face. "I've got the spell," he said, taking the pad of paper. Within a few minutes, he had one written down and he handed it over to Susan, who scanned it.

"It'll do," she said simply, climbing up the stairs just as a loud thump emerged from the floor above. "Okay, it'll have to do, because we have to move, people! Come on, let's go, come on!" she ordered.

"Is she always this impatient and bossy?" Jake inquired as they pounded up the stairs and towards the noise. The two brothers looked at him, then towards their sister, before looking at each other, both with the exactly exasperated look on their faces.

"Usually," they both said at the same time.

"I heard that!" Susan yelled from the other room. "And you get away from her, you sick psycho!"

Nathan felt as though his feet suddenly had a mind of their own as they raced towards where his sister was, Jake and Lucas behind him. Haley was lying on the middle of the staircase, a demon right behind her with a knife on her throat. Her brown eyes were wide with fright, relieved at seeing the three of them, and confusion when she saw Jake.

"Don't even think about it, witches," the demon growled, pressing the knife further against her throat. "Or your little wife will die and your little boy, Scott."

"Let her go," Nathan said, fear rising through him. "This isn't about Haley; leave her and my son out of this. You want end the Charmed Ones? Take me, I'll join you guys."

"Nathan, what are you doing?" Susan snapped at him.

"Interesting offer, but your son is quite a bit more powerful than you are, Nathan. Our master would rather have him than he would a Charmed One, I can assure you." The demon smirked. "But I'll have him know that you'd be willing to change sides for your precious wife. He'll be quite interested to learn that particular piece of information."

"No, you listen to me," Susan yelled. "You let my sister-in-law go, because there is no way that you are going to be delivering my nephew."

"Yeah," a familiar voice said, "that's our job."

The demon whirled around towards the source of the voice, but a body was flung down the stairs and he was knocked off of his feet. A dead demon dropped down where Haley was, who scrambled away the moment she had a chance, and was at Nathan's side, holding on to him. Brooke appeared behind the demon, giving him a good kick towards the shins.

He managed to dive out of the way just in time and turned his attacked towards the witchlighter.

Just as the demon charged towards Susan, Jake launched onto him, planting a good punch to the head, rendering him unconscious. "Is that all of them?" he asked, directing the question at no one in particular.

Haley nodded. "Just the two," she answered weakly. Nathan realised she was barely able to support herself and picked her up into his arms easily, holding on to her tightly.

"Let's do this, then," Lucas said as he flung the dust towards the demons. Speaking as one, the siblings chanted,

"_Beast of legend, myth, and lore, _

_give our words the power to soar. _

_And kill this evil evermore." _

(AN: Spell taken from the Charmed Episode "The Day Magic Died")

Almost instantly, the demons exploded, as well as the one in the closet, and the siblings were able to breathe easily. But not for long.

"Everybody okay?" Jake asked.

"I feel like I'm dying," Haley moaned. "_Again_."

Susan chuckled as they moved Haley up the stairs and to her bedroom, where they prepared for the baby's birth.


	9. The Birth of the Next Generation

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Nine: The Birth of the Next Generation

As her sister-in-law used unicorn dust to heal her mother, Haley could feel the baby's movements inside of her, struggling to make his way into the world. Taking her mother's hand, Susan tapped into Elizabeth's healing powers to treat the wound that was on her side, the Darklighter arrow having been removed by Lucas.

Once Elizabeth had been healed, they all crowded around so that they could help with the baby's birth. Haley tried to breathe as she had been taught during classes, but everything seemed to go out of her mind as the pain overcame her. Clutching her husband's hand, Haley was suddenly thrown through her entire life.

She remembered living in Tree Hill when she was a little girl, playing in the yard with her brothers and sisters. The youngest of seven, she always got raggedy hand-me-downs, but she had never let that faze her. Her father's smiling face as he danced with his youngest daughter, her mother laughing as they twirled around the living room.

Suddenly, she was ten years old and her two eldest brothers, Sam and Benny, were sent off to war. She remembered the sad look on her mother's face as they waved goodbye to them, the anguished one on her father's. It was the last time that they had ever seen Sam. He died in combat during the Korean War, but Benny barely managed to escape with his life. When he came back, wounded, he had never been the same. To their dismay, Benny took his own life two years later. Haley would never forget the sight of her elder brother lying in the bathroom with blood pouring out of his wrists. She had screamed for her mother, already knowing that it was too late.

Her brother's funeral. The last one that she had attended to before she had died and become a Whitelighter. It was so sad and full of anguish. Her sisters were sitting on each of their parents' sides, and her only remaining brother Matthew was sitting next to her, squeezing her hand tightly.

Dear, dependable Matthew, who had been closest to her in age and was her closest confident until her own death when she was twenty-one. As her mind pulled towards the event that had taken her life, she remembered when Matthew had gotten a girl pregnant during high school.

Naturally, their parents had been furious and turned him from the house, forbidding Haley to speak to him.

Nevertheless, the youngest James child continued to speak with her brother, despite her parents' disapproval and fury. He married the girl, Nancy was her name, and gotten a job at the local factory. Haley still saw her from time to time and her little daughter that she had given birth to, but they never saw her. Nancy wouldn't know her now anyway and her daughter wouldn't know the aunt who had died when she was still a little girl.

Her mind turned towards the event that had taken her life. She still remembered the pain of it, the anguish. Matthew had been wanting to buy an anniversary present for Nancy and had saved enough money for it over the past few months. He had asked Haley for help picking out something and she'd gone with him after she'd gotten off work at the volunteer clinic at the hospital.

They had just been about to pay for the expensive gold bracelet that Matthew had picked out. The salesman was wrapping it out when a robber suddenly stormed the place, demanding for the salesman to give him the jewellery. Haley had tried to intervene, to stop him, but the man only responded by the gun exploding in her chest.

She remembered Matthew screaming her name as he flew down next to her, tears pouring down his cheeks. He had flung at the robber, fighting him for all he was worth, when the robber hit him in the back of the head with the gun. Matthew went down and then there was another gunshot.

Her brother was flung down next to her, his brown eyes filled with remorse and helplessness as he stared at Haley. As she lay dying, she remembered seeing white lights surround her and lifting her and Matthew both up. Then they were both surrounded by Whitelighters and they asked them both if they wanted to become Whitelighters and watch of special people like the siblings and future Whitelighters.

Haley remembered the shock she had felt as she stared at them, but she had accepted immediately. Matthew, on the other hand, refused. He didn't want to go back down to earth until it was time for him to be reborn. And with one last goodbye to his sister, he went Up There. That was the last time that Haley had ever seen her brother.

She had been transferred away from Tree Hill until it was safe enough to return, when people wouldn't recognise her. When she had been assigned to Brooke as one of her charges, which would relocate her to Tree Hill, she had jumped at the chance. The Whitelighter had missed the place that she had grown up in, had been born and raised in. It was her home.

And now, it was the home of her husband, her brother-in-law, and her sister-in-law, as well as her niece and nephew. And pretty soon, it would be the home of her son as well. She could hear herself screaming in pain as she struggled to push her son into the world.

"Okay, I can see it!" Susan yelled. She was laughing. "We're getting close, Haley! I can see a head of dark hair!"

"You do?" Haley gasped, but she was laughing with delight.

"What'd you expect, a blond?" Nathan asked, grinning wildly.

"Well, when I went to the future, Wyatt _was_ a blond," Susan pointed out, grinning wickedly at her younger brother. Lucas laughed as a swirl of lights started to stream overhead.

"Looks like magic's coming back!" he said triumphantly.

"We're almost there!" Susan said encouragingly. "Almost there! Come on, Hales, just one more push and we're done! A really big one! Come on, Haley," she said persuasively. "Come on!"

"I can't!" Haley moaned. How had her mother managed to do this seven times? she wondered as she pushed with what little strength she had left.

"You've got to, Haley!" Nathan encouraged.

"Come on, we're all with you!" Brooke cheered. "Go, Haley! Go, Haley!" she said in her cheerleader voice. If she had the strength, then Haley would've slapped her.

Just as her strength gave out, Haley heard the first outcry from her son. Susan was laughing as she cleared out his mouth and placed him in a blanket. With a smile, she handed him over to his mother and father, who took him into her arms with an awed look on her face.

"Oh, my god," she whispered, looking up at Nathan. He was looking just as astonished as she was and just as happy. Looking down at her little boy, Haley held him in her arms, stroking his little head tenderly. "Oh, he's so handsome. Look at our boy, Nathan," she whispered. "Look at him."

"I'm looking," Nathan whispered as he joined her on the bed, on arm around her and one reaching out towards their son. Wyatt looked up at his father and grabbed onto his finger. "I'm looking. Hey there, little guy, I'm your daddy. I'm your daddy," he repeated softly.

Haley looked up at the rest of the family as they watched the proud family. Brooke was laughing as she watched the new family, no doubt remembering her own experience of giving birth a few months ago. Susan was leaning against her elder brother with a smile on her face. Her mother was on her right, watching the family, smiling vaguely, before walking out of the room. Jake was standing nearby, watching the scene happily, but still a little shocked by everything that had happened.

"Welcome to the family," Haley whispered as she cradled her son. "Welcome to your home, Wyatt Matthew Scott." It was his name; she knew that now. Wyatt after his daddy and Matthew after his uncle, the brother that had been there so much for Haley but was gone now. It was a name that she hoped he would bear honourably.

Susan glanced towards where her mother had disappeared and glanced at the rest of the family, before following her mother out of the room.

"Mom?" she asked, closing the door behind her, leaving the happiness in the room that they had just left. The Whitelighter looked at her as they stood alone in the hallway.

Elizabeth smiled as she leaned against the wall, staring at her daughter quietly. "Oh, my dear child," she sighed, reaching out and stroking Susan's dark hair. "It's been so long since we last saw each other but in other ways, it seems like it was just yesterday."

"I've missed you, Mom," Susan whispered, "so much."

Her mother nodded. "I know," she said softly. "And you've been through so much for a girl of mere nineteen years. Much more than I would've ever expected you to go through. Losing me and Keith, finding your brothers, becoming the Charmed Ones . . . and now becoming a mother." Her blue-green eyes, so much like her daughter's, were focused on Susan. "You've become a woman that I am so proud of, daughter. Your uncle would be proud of you, too, just like he's proud of your brothers."

Susan felt tears prickling in her eyes. She sniffled slightly. "Why is it that people in this family lose their parents without so much as a goodbye?" she asked quietly.

With a small sigh, Elizabeth hugged her daughter tightly. "I don't know, dearest," she told her softly. "I truly don't know. But I do know one thing: you are not going to leave your boys the way that I left you." When she pulled away from Susan, she looked at her firmly. "Have faith, my child, that your destiny does lie upon the same path as mine."

Although that same fear was still living inside of her, Susan nodded. "Am I ever going to see you again?" she asked, looking up at her mother, who studied her curiously.

"What does your heart tell you?"

Susan looked to her heart, looked deep inside of her, but she truly didn't know. She wanted it to be true so badly, but didn't know whether or not to trust her hopes and not her instincts that this was going to be the last time that she ever saw her mother again, at least for a very long time. "I don't know. Yes. I guess."

Elizabeth nodded. "Then we _will_ see each other again, darling. How can you doubt such a thing? After all, since when do people around here stay dead long?" she questioned with a smile.

Susan chuckled and shook her head, knowing she was right. Dan had come back from the dead and almost killed her nephews and niece. Keith had come back just in time to save two of them. And now her mother was here, standing in front of her, a Whitelighter again.

"Okay," she said with a nod.

Her mother glanced upwards, obviously hearing something. As Susan strained her ears, she heard the faint sound of jingling. "And I'm afraid that it's time for me to go," she said softly, looking back down at her daughter.

Taking a deep breath, she hugged her mother tightly. "Be safe, Mom," she said quietly.

Kissing her daughter's forehead, Elizabeth nodded. "You stay safe as well, my daughter," she told Susan. "There are some things that you are about to encounter, things that I probably should have told you."

Shaking her head, confused, Susan stared at her mother. "Told me what?" she asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," Elizabeth said with a sigh. Without another word, she disappeared into a swirl of white lights.

Although deeply perturbed by her mother's words, Susan returned to Nathan and Haley's bedroom, rejoining the family in welcoming their son/nephew and the next generation of the Warren and Charmed line.

AN: Okay, how weird is it that I am posting this on the very day that Nathan and Haley's son is born on the show? Very bizarre. And I didn't even plan it that way; it just seemed to turn out that way. Anyway, thanks for the review, guys, and please, please review this chapter!

Thanks!

Lady Dawson


	10. History is Repeated

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Ten: History is Repeated

Lucas rubbed his eyes as he made his way down to the kitchen to heat up a bottle for Keith. His son had made it a habit of waking up about three in the morning and demand a bottle with high-pitched screams, so he had abruptly woken up about that time without his son's assistance. So, knowing that Keith would be up in a little while, Lucas had made his way downstairs to make a bottle, letting Brooke sleep.

To his surprise, Haley was in the kitchen, her robe wearing aimlessly around her and her light brown hair tousled. It was obvious that she'd just gotten out of bed. She looked around at him as he entered the kitchen. "You, too?" she asked, holding up a heated bottle in her hands.

"Not yet, but knowing Keith, he'll probably be up in a little while, so I thought that I'd get started on it." Lucas made his way over to Haley ands started preparing the bottle. "So, I'm guessing that Wyatt wake you up?" he asked, glancing over at Haley.

"Yeah," Haley said with a laugh. "So tell me, since you've got the few months ahead of Nathan and me, how long do you think it's going to be before we get a full night of sleeping around here again?"

With a short laugh, Lucas smiled at his sister-in-law. "Well, considering that they're Scott kids, not to mention the sons and daughters of the Charmed Ones, I'd say another twenty years."

Haley burst out laughing at that statement, trying to smother her sniggers so she wouldn't wake anybody up. Still chuckling, she made her way over to the coffee pot, where he saw that a freshly brewed pot was sitting. "Good thing I made some coffee, then."

"Oh, yeah." Lucas tested the bottle, about to head upstairs and feed his son when both he and Haley heard hushed voices coming from the living room, but they sounded angry and upset. Raising his eyebrows towards Haley, he hurried over to the doorway, listening carefully. His sister-in-law was beside him, listening closely as well.

"I don't care what They say, Shawn. It's not right and it's not fair!" That was Susan's voice, he realised. What were she and Shawn doing up this late? "What difference does it make if we're together or not? It shouldn't be up to Them! Besides, we're already a family!"

"Susan, I am not any happier about this situation than you are, but the fact is that They are putting Their feet down about this." Shawn was pleading with his girlfriend, desperation in his voice. "I don't see any way we could possibly get out of this."

"So what, They're just going to make us break up or we never see each other again? And what about our son? Another Scott to grow up without a father, like me and Janie? At least Lucas had Keith, but I never had a father in my life and Janie lost hers to death! The closest that I had was Keith and I only had him for a couple weeks. And now my child is going to follow the same fate? What is fair about that?"

Shawn sighed. "Look, Susan, I know that it's not right, okay? I _know_ that. But the point is that—"

"That they are going to do the 'unspeakable wrath, the likes of which you can't even imagine.'" Susan's voice was annoyed. "Yes, I heard you the first time." She fell silent, but that was a little more angered than actual words, Lucas thought.

Obviously Shawn thought the same thing. "Look, I don't know what you want me to say. If we stay together, They're going to send me far enough away so that our son will never see me. If we break up, I'll still never be able to be a father to him. We're in a lose-lose situation here."

"Well, there has to be some way around Their rules," Susan snapped. "Rules are _meant_ to be broken. There has to be some way that we haven't thought of." Her footsteps were hard and frustrated as she paced back and forth. Lucas couldn't see her, but he could hear her from the way she was walking.

"There's not," Shawn told her. "Look, maybe this isn't the best situation, but I think it's the best one for our son. If we went around the rules, then They would do something possible even worse than forcing us to break up." He was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry."

"I am not giving up," Susan replied quietly. "If They think that I'm just going to let us go without a fight, then They're wrong."

"No, you're not," Shawn retorted. "Susan, there isn't anything we can do about this. This is the only way for things to work out. I'll never stop loving you and I know that you'll raise our son to be a strong man, but . . . we can't be together anymore. Because I don't want you to have to suffer the consequences of us being together. And I know that _you_ don't want to have our son suffer the consequences."

Lucas peered around the doorway to see his sister and Whitelighter standing in the living room. Although her back was to him, he knew that Susan was trying very hard not to cry. Shawn was looking positively lost at the situation as he walked closer to Susan, placing his hands on her shoulders.

Almost instantly, she jerked away from him, walking away from him, folding her arms across her chest and refusing to look at him. "You can't ask me to just give up," she said quietly, her voice shaking. "You don't really expect for me to just surrender everything that we've worked towards."

"No," Shawn sighed, looking forlorn. "I don't. By now, I know you well enough that when you put your mind to something, there's no changing it. But I also know that you're going to do right by our son. It may take some time, Susan, but . . . eventually, you'll do what you need to do. I know that . . . and in your heart, you know it too."

"What about Chris and Ben?" Susan replied, finally looking at him straight in the eye. "Somehow we made it work in their future. If you leave now, then they won't so much as get conceived."

Shawn closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened them, he was looking at her seriously. "I remember a line from a poem," he said softly. "Don't remember where I read it, but . . . it said, if you love something, set if free. If it's meant to be, it will come back to you."

The comment caught both brother and sister off guard. Lucas stared at his Whitelighter in amazement while Susan's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Susan, I know that it sounds crazy, but . . . if we are meant to be together, then somehow, someway, I will find a way back to you. If our sons are meant to be a part of our future, then they will be conceived."

This only made the witchlighter stare stonily at him, her blue-green eyes closely guarded and narrowed in anger. She said nothing as he walked over to her, but this time she didn't pull away. He kissed her forehead tenderly. "I'll never stop loving you," he said softly. "Believe that. We will see each other again, Susan. Trust me."

Without another word, he disappeared in a swirl of white orbs and Susan walked back into the living room, sinking down onto the sofa.

Haley tugged the bottle out of Lucas's hands. "I'll go deal with the boys," she whispered. "You go take care of your sister."

Lucas nodded as she disappeared upstairs. With a small sigh, he walked out into the living room, where his sister was lying on the couch, her face buried into a pillow, soft sobs emerging from her.

As his footsteps drew closer, Susan looked up, seeing him for the first time. Her face was streaked with tears, which she pushed away impatiently. She sniffled slightly. "You heard all of that?"

"I heard . . . some stuff going on . . ." Lucas said guiltily, shifting from one foot to the other. At Susan's glare, he sighed. "Okay, yeah, I pretty much heard everything." His sister only tightened her grip on the pillow. "Are you okay, little sister?"

Susan looked up at him, obviously annoyed with him. "Let me see here, Lucas, the Elders have just decreed that Shawn and I either had to break up or never see each other again. He had to leave me alone, pregnant, to raise our unborn son, and my child is going to grow up without a father, just like I was. Of course I'm not all right." All through this speech, her voice had been breaking and at the end of it, she burst into tears.

Lucas sighed, pulling her into his arms and rubbing her back soothingly. "I wish that there was something I could say or do to help you with this, Sue, but I don't think that there is," he said quietly. Susan didn't answer, just kept crying into his chest. "But everything is going to be okay."

Susan let out a half-laugh, half-sob. "How do you know that?" she asked in a voice that was choked with tears.

"Because this kid is going to have a great uncle," Lucas answered with a smile at her. "And I was taught by the best."

This made Susan smile back at him, though her face was still stained with tears. "I love you, big brother," she whispered, still clinging to him. Lucas just held her; right now, all she wanted was to be held.

"I love you, too, little sister," he told her. "Look, I don't what is going to happen, but I promise you that there is one thing that is never going to change. And that's that I am never going to leave you. No matter what happens, you can always count on me to be there for you and for your boys."

"You can count on both of us," Nathan said, appearing on Susan's other side. "Hales told me what happened," he explained as he joined the group hug. "It's gonna be okay."

Susan looked at him sceptically. "Are you sure about that?" she asked him doubtfully.

"You bet," Nathan agreed. "Besides, you're a Scott. How could you be anything other than okay?" This caused all three of them to start laughing, jolted out of their melancholy state. And for a moment that seemed to last for much more, the world seemed to be okay.

But they should've known that nothing, especially happiness, lasted forever. Especially in their lives.

The next step in their destiny was about to occur.


	11. Spiritual Counsel

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Eleven: Spiritual Counsel

Susan climbed out of the car, closing it behind her as she stared out over the cemetery that she had arrived at.

With a small sigh, she walked through the rows of graves where people were lying in eternal rest, finally coming up to the spot where her uncle lay, the marker in the shade next to a giant oak tree, its branches shielding the occupant.

"Hey, Uncle Keith," she said softly, squatting down beside the grave. "It's Susan. I'm just here because . . . everything's falling apart. I don't know what I'm gonna do," she said in a small voice. "Shawn left me. Actually, the Elders forced him to leave. My baby . . . he's not gonna have a father. I've never felt so alone in my entire life. Even after Mom died, it wasn't as bad as this. Uncle Keith . . . please, just . . . give me a sign of what I should do." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Please, I don't know where I'm supposed to turn to, what I should do. It's bad enough that demons are going to be after my son day and night, but now I have to do this alone."

"You're not alone," a familiar voice spoke up. Susan stood up, startled out of her tears, as she turned around and faced the same man that she was talking to. "You're not alone, Susan," her Uncle Keith said gently, walking towards her. To her surprise, he was corporeal and not the spiritual form that she half-expected him to be in.

"Uncle Keith," she whispered, racing towards him and embracing him tightly. Her uncle hugged her back, smoothing down her wild curls before releasing her. "I've been listening to our one-ended conversations, but I had the feeling that we should talk face-to-face for this one." Susan nodded, her voice too constricted to speak. "Talk to me, Susan."

Susan sank down onto the ground and her uncle joined her, waiting for her to speak. "It's not fair!" she burst out, angry and frustrated. "Over the past year, Shawn and I have _proven_ that we are more than capable to be in a relationship _and_ perform Charmed and Whitelighter duties. Why are the Elders forcing us to break up now, right when . . ."

"When you found out that you're going to be a mother?" Keith finished up for his niece. She looked at him, then stared at her hands. "Susan, I completely agreed; what They're doing isn't right. But the fact is that They are doing it. And I'm pretty sure that They'll do a lot more than just break you two apart if you try and break the rules."

"Screw the rules!" Susan retorted. "I don't care about the rules! Look at Nathan and Haley! They broke the rules and the Elders are leaving them alone! Why won't They just let us be?"

Keith let out a sigh. "Well, Nathan and Haley's . . . was a unique situation," he admitted with a small sigh. Susan looked at him. "Some of the Elders felt that they should be broke apart, even after They allowed them to be together. But there were others who foresaw the special baby that Haley would be carrying."

"Wyatt."

"Yeah, Wyatt," Keith agreed gently, rubbing his niece's shoulders comfortingly. "They're being hard on you because the baby's going to be more Whitelighter than witch. There are some that think that fact alone is going to lead him down the wrong path. Those who believe that Whitelighter and witch blood shouldn't be mixed."

"Stupid Elders," Susan grumbled. "Those beings are a long way from being the paragons of all good that They're _supposed_ to be." Her uncle chuckled and Susan felt her lips twitch. "Keith, what about that future that you showed me? What about Chris? If Shawn never comes back, then—"

"Everything will be fine," Keith interrupted her. She looked at him. "Susie-girl, you have seen two different futures. One where you only had one son and the other where you had two. And in those futures, there was never any doubt that you and Shawn were together. And Chris existed in both of them, didn't he?"

Susan thought about that and nodded. "Yeah, he did," she agreed, rubbing her hand over her stomach. Unless you were looking for it, you couldn't see the pregnancy yet. "And now he's gonna have a big brother."

"Hopefully, he'll be as good a brother as his mother is a sister," Keith agreed. "You brought your brothers together, Susan. You made them a real family. And that is something that I thought nobody could do. Don't you worry about Chris. He'll be a part of your future. I'm certain of that."

The witchlighter smiled faintly, looking up at her uncle. "I thought that you had the Warren gift of telekinesis, not premonitions," she commented, causing Keith to laugh. "But you really think everything's going to be okay? With all three of my boys?"

"I only know about this little one and Chris," Keith replied. "Sue, the future changes with every choice that we make; you know that. Ben may never exist now."

"How do you know?"

"Because you were always meant to have Chris. It was a part of your destiny, no matter _what_ path that you took. If you had stayed back home, never met your brothers, it would not have mattered, because he was always a part of your future."

Susan shook her head, bewildered. "Why?" she asked, confused. "Why would Chris be an inevitable part of my fate?"

Her uncle only grinned wildly. "You'll find out in couple of years," he replied. "After he's born."

"Is this what Mom was talking about, when she said that there were things that she should've told me?"

Keith sighed. "No, that's not it. I wish I could say that it was, but what she meant by that, you're going to have to learn on your own time in your own terms."

With a small sigh, Susan looked down at her hands. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to do, Uncle Keith," she said in a small voice. "I just . . . feel so lost and alone."

"But you are not alone," Keith pointed out. "You've got family and friends all around you. Susan, you have to brothers who would rather gouge out their own eyes than see anything bad happen to you or your baby. You've got Karen, who sees you as a daughter. You have two sisters-in-law, two wonderful nephews, and beautiful niece, and a baby boy on the way." Susan considered this as she looked sideways at her uncle. "And no matter what you may think, Susan, you have a wonderful life. Family, friends, and a life full of accomplishment, both as a Charmed One and as a woman. I'm not saying that your future isn't going to hold some heartache and pain, but it's also going to hold joy beyond your imagination."

Susan smiled, feeling somewhat better. "Yeah?" she asked. Her uncle nodded. "Uncle Keith . . . can you see the future now?"

Her uncle sighed. "Sometimes. It comes and goes."

"What do you see for me?" she asked softly. "And no more of the cryptic stuff, I mean for real."

Keith smiled at her, his brown eyes flickering behind her. She turned and got to her feet, staring at the little boy that was peering out behind the tree. He laughed as he darted away from them, grinning back at niece and uncle.

"Who is that?" Susan asked, looking at her uncle, who was smiling towards the little boy.

"Don't you know?"

Looking back at the little boy, Susan felt her heart leap into her throat as she stared back at the little boy. He had waves of blond hair that framed a laughing face. His blue-green eyes were like her own and when he smiled towards them, she realised that it was Shawn's smile.

"He's my son," she whispered, not tearing her gaze from the little boy. Keith nodded, watching the two of them.

"Mommy!" the little boy called, waving towards them. "Come with me, Mommy! Come back to me!"

"You should go with him," Keith said gently. He gently guided his niece towards her son. "Don't worry, Susie-girl. Everything will be all right. It's all right, Susan. Go. Your son and your family are waiting." His voice echoed slightly as Susan walked to her son, hoisting him onto her hip as she looked back towards Keith, but he was gone. Her son laughed as he hugged her tightly, still smiling the broad smile of his father's.

"Susan?"

Her eyelids fluttered open and Susan looked up, broken from her trace as someone touched her shoulder. "Jake," she said, pushing herself into a sitting position where she stood. "What are you doing here?"

"Dunno," Jake shrugged. "I went for a walk and then I ended up here." Looking down at the grave, he sighed. "I'm sorry about Keith. Tree Hill just doesn't feel the same without him."

Susan nodded mutely, but she felt an inner sense of calm, remembering the dream/conversation/hallucination that she'd had of her uncle and son.

Jake helped her stand up and she brushed the dirt off of her dress as she looked around the cemetery. "Um . . . listen, I know this isn't exactly the best time for this, but . . . what happened to Peyton?"

With a small sigh, Susan looked up at him, knowing that he deserved the truth. If something ever happened to Shawn, she would hope that someone would give her enough credit to tell her the truth about what happened to him.

"It was about ten months ago," she said quietly. "Haley was pregnant with Wyatt when it happened. This guy named Anderson; he was an inspector at the police department, inspecting Dan's escape. We didn't know at the time, but he actually was a demon. After we had to vanquish Dan a second time, he tried to kill all of us by summoning this . . . nexus from the manor."

"What's a nexus?"

"It's a point of incredible energy, the centerpoint of the five basal elements: wood, earth, water, fire, and metal. And our house in right in the center of it. It's on both a spiritual and Wiccan nexus, which means it's a battleground for good and evil. We managed to trap the Nexus again and vanquish Anderson, but not . . ." She looked down, unable to make eye contact.

"But not . . .?" Jake prompted. Susan let out a slow breath, looking up at him sorrowfully.

"Not before Anderson killed Peyton," she whispered. Jake's eyes went wide and he took a step back, shaking his head. "He was aiming for Brooke and she was pregnant. Peyton pushed her out of the way, but . . . she didn't have enough time to get out of the way herself."

"She's dead?" Jake said hoarsely. "No, no, no, it can't be . . . she can't be dead. Tell me that this is a joke."

Susan shook her head, feeling tears start to prickle in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered, about to walk away when Jake stopped her.

"Wait." Susan stopped where she was, looking back at Jake. He looked at her almost pleadingly. "Where—where's she buried at?"

Feeling that she at least owed it to him to show him that much, Susan led him through the graveyard, finally stepping on the place where two Sawyers had been lain to rest. Anna Sawyer and her only daughter Peyton . . .

Susan backed away as Jake knelt down beside it, sensing his need for privacy. She had no wish to intrude on the private moment. As she headed back for the car, she took one look back at Jake. His head was dropped into his hands and his shoulders were shaking.

In that moment, she felt something that she hadn't felt for a long time, other than on herself.

Pity.


	12. Prophetic Dreams

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twelve: Prophetic Dreams

Nathan rubbed his eyes tiredly as he fed his son in the high chair. Lucas had Peyton in his arms, feeding her, while Brooke had claimed Keith. Haley was at the stove, cooking up a hot meal and coffee, along with a pot of hot water so Susan could have tea. The witchlighter couldn't stand coffee and could barely tolerate the smell of it, especially now that she was pregnant.

"So how's Susan doing?" Haley asked quietly, glancing towards the stairwell, as though expecting her to appear. "Since Shawn left and all? How's she holding up?"

"She's angry," Lucas answered with a sigh. "Though that's to be expected. And really upset. But she's hanging in there. I think that if it weren't for the baby, she probably would've broken down by now."

"No kidding," Nathan agreed. "But she hasn't been sleeping well. I could hear her tossing and turning all night last night. You think maybe your mom could talk to her, Luke?" he asked, glancing at his brother. "I mean, she was in this situation twice before, having to raise a child alone."

"Honestly, I don't think it's going to help much," Lucas commented, shaking his head. "I mean, even though Mom knew about witchcraft and stuff, she was never in the situation that Susan's in. If anything, I'd think you and Haley would be the better ones to talk to her. The Elders tried to break you up, didn't They?"

Haley bit her lip fretfully. "Well, that was kind of a unique situation. And besides, They were _really_ mad that I went behind Their backs and got married with a witch without Their permission. To get pregnant with one, unmarried, is just as bad if not worse. I don't think that it's going to be quite so simple for Susan and Shawn. It'll be a miracle if we ever see him again."

She stopped talking when Susan entered the room, running her hands through her tousled hair as she went over to the stove. "I need tea," she grumbled. His sister looked slightly nauseated, he noticed.

"How about breakfast?" Haley suggested, holding up a plate of eggs. Susan made a face. "Morning sickness?"

"Oh, yeah," Susan moaned as she went over to the cabinet. "Sorry, Hales. But Baby Dawson doesn't seem to want to make his mommy happy this morning."

"Well, it's just an uphill road from here," Brooke said cheerfully. "The last month flies by, though. And speaking of flying, I got to get out of here," she added, placing the baby food down on the table. Keith looked at his mother as though she were abandoning him, but she only smiled and kissed his cheek lovingly. "I'll be back later, sweetie." Brooke left the room to go get ready for work and school.

At once, the firstborn child of the firstborn Charmed One let out a fresh wail and Lucas looked desperately towards the two women, as his hands were full with his daughter.

"I got him," Susan sighed as she went over to her nephew and took Brooke's place at the table. At once, his wailing ceased and he giggled happily as she continued to feed the baby. "I don't know how you manage twins, Luke."

"Trust me, I haven't the slightest idea how we do it either," Lucas responded as Keith laughed at his aunt. "Has it already been six months since they were born? It seems like they were born only yesterday," he said wistfully, lost in memories.

"Sue, you all right?" Nathan asked, glancing towards his sister. She nodded, not looking up as she fed their nephew. "Well, you don't look all right."

"I'm fine," Susan replied, glancing towards him. "I just keep having these strange dreams. About an ancient sorcerer and a city that's burning to the ground. It's all very disturbing."

"Think that they mean something?" Lucas asked her, jolted from his musings. His sister shrugged, toying with the spoon as Keith tried, unsuccessfully, to grab it from his aunt.

"I'm not sure," she commented. "But I think that it would be an awfully big coincidence if it didn't." She finished feeding Keith and hoisted him up onto her hip. "Which is why after I'm done with this boy here, I'm going up to the attic and going to do a little research in the Book."

"You want some help?" Nathan asked.

"No, I'll be fine. If I find anything out, then I will call you immediately, but you guys both have class. Nate, you've got work, and it could just be nothing. So there is no reason for you two to put your lives on hold just because I'm being . . ."

"Paranoid?" Lucas suggested.

"Neurotic?" Nathan added.

Susan glared at the both of them, obviously annoyed with the pair of them. "No," she retorted. "Actually—"

"Obsessive?" Haley asked with a smile. This time, it was her who received the glare from Susan and all three of them prepared to receive her wrath. Susan looked about to explode, but she took a deep breath, calming herself, and placed her hands on her hips.

"I don't obsess," she retorted. "I worry . . . intensely." With that said, she walked out of the room with Keith, climbing the stairs to the twins' room.

Nathan glanced towards his brother. "So, do you think that we should stop her?" he questioned.

"Nah," Lucas replied, running his hands through her hair. "Just as long as she doesn't go looking for trouble, I don't think doing a little research is going to do any damage."

"You do realise that every time one of us says that, something always goes really, _really_ wrong?" Nathan questioned. Lucas sighed, nodding miserably.

"Well, as long as she doesn't do any time travelling, like you did when you were out of control, I think she'll be fine," Lucas responded. "Need a ride to school?"

"Yeah," Nathan answered as he got to his feet. "You got our boy, Hales?" She nodded, kissing him tenderly.

"Don't worry, I got Wyatt," she said with a smile. "You get yourself to school, we'll be fine. All three of us," she added, glancing upwards. Nathan smiled as he headed out of the room.

--

As he stood from the balcony of the stone castle in which he resided, the young man looked behind him in the room. He was a handsome young man, but had a seed of evil within him. His black hair framed a deceitful face and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. He wore power around him like a cloak and the elaborate robes that he wore were symbols of power, so that no one would dare oppose him or speak against him.

"It will soon be over, Lady Gabrielle," he said with a smile towards the chained woman in the room. "Soon, this entire kingdom will fall and you along with it. I can't say that I'm disappointed by this, but I would've thought that your people would've stood up against me a bit more. I suppose that they are not as loyal to their mistress as you thought, are they?"

"We do what we need to do so that we can survive," the young woman answered. Her dark curls were dirty and unkempt, her blue-green eyes were tired and defeated, but held an inner fire within them. "No matter what you do, Lord Malum, we will always do what we need to do. You may burn my kingdom, you may destroy the kingdom until it is nothing left but a pile of splinters, but you will never, _never_ stop the heart the beats. It will continue, because good magic is on our side. And good will always triumph over evil, just as love will survive even in the darkest of times."

Lord Malum only snorted as he stared at the woman in front of him. "Your true love has abandoned you, hasn't he, Gabrielle? The one you hold so close to your heart has left you to die. And you soon will, but not before you see your precious kingdom fall to ruin and your hope and faith brought to an end."

"I will never stop believing," Lady Gabrielle replied firmly. "Jesse will return to me and the kingdom will be saved. Our love knows no bounds, is not swayed by petty jealousy."

"Petty jealousy?" Lord Malum exclaimed, looking at her in fury. "You believe me to be some pathetic twit, that I would be doing all this just to win your affections? Believe me, Gabrielle, when I say that I loved you, I meant it, but you chose someone beneath your power. A powerful witch as yourself could've sided with the most powerful sorcerer of all time, but instead you pledged your love to a man with limited power. Jesse will never return to you, my dear, and in return for you scorning my love, you will burn, as you burnt me with your contempt."

He walked away from Lady Gabrielle, who watched him go. She moved as close as she could to the window, staring out into the city, which was burning below her. This was _her_ kingdom and she had to save it. But how?

Closing her eyes, Lady Gabrielle knew that there was no other choice. She had to escape; it was the only way to save them. And she had to find help, but the only way to find that was in another place and time.

Her cousin Nathaniel had once spoken of three powerful witches in another time, ones that would be far beyond any power that anyone had ever encountered. Perhaps they could help.

"They are called the Charmed Ones, sister," Nathaniel had told her. "The Power of Three, who live in the twenty-first century."

Her eyes flew open and Lady Gabrielle looked towards the sky, her mind forming the words that she would say, the spell that would take her to another time, another place.

"_In this night and in this hour,_

_I call upon the ancient power._

_Send me to the ones that I seek. _

_Send me to the Power of Three." _

White lights surrounded her body and the castle in front of her vanished. Lady Gabrielle smiled with relief as it washed away and was replaced by a dirty attic that was messy and filthy. Her old nurse Mandy would've had a fit if she saw this, she thought in amusement.

But her amusement faltered when she heard an exclamation. Turning, she saw a young woman standing by the window, by a book. She wore a shirt and pants, like a lad, but it was her face that startled Gabrielle the most.

Because as she looked closer, the young woman's billowing hair was the same dark as hers, she had the same blue-green eyes, and her face was the exact replica of her own.

The two women stared at each other in astonishment, because they were, in fact, exact images of the other!

AN: Take a wild guess of who Lady Gabrielle is! I dare you!


	13. Three Siblings, Three Cousins

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twelve: Three Siblings, Three Cousins

Susan had been flipping through the Book of Shadows for the last hour, ever since her brothers left, when she heard the faint sound of a spell being cast. Looking up, her eyes widened when white lights appeared in the attic and a figure shimmered into view. Automatically, she flicked her wrists to freeze the woman, but she remained mobile.

_Not again, _she thought miserably as the woman looked around. And as her face was thrown into light, Susan let out an astonished gasp, staring incredulously at the woman. For this woman, whoever she was, was in the exact image of herself!

It wasn't just similarities, but they were completely identical. The face, the hands, the nose, the walk, everything was the same! It was closer than identical twins, even!

Barely able to breathe as the woman stared at her, obviously as astonished as she was. "Who—who are you?" Susan demanded, walking out from behind the stand that held the family heirloom. "What do you want?"

"Your help," the woman answered, though her voice was shaking. "Are you one of the Charmed Ones?"

"Who wants to know?" Susan replied, placing her hands across her chest and glaring at the woman. "I'm not answering any questions until you tell me who you are and what you're doing here. And why do you look like me?"

"That, I'm afraid, I am as astonished to discover as you are," the woman answered, studying Susan curiously. "We must be the same person. You must be one of my future selves. I never thought that I would be finding my future life when I came looking for you."

"Whoa, whoa, hold it!" Susan interrupted, holding up a hand. "Your future self? What are you talking about?"

"If I'm right, then you were me in one of your past lives," the woman explained. Susan's mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally shut it, deciding not to say anything was the best idea. "My name is Lady Gabrielle. I am in great need of you and the others help."

Susan suppressed a sigh, glancing upwards towards the ceiling. "You guys have a sick sense of humour, you know that?" she demanded. Gabrielle hide a smile behind her hand, and Susan looked back at her. "Okay, why don't we go over the details first and then we'll decide what we're doing."

"Fair enough. You don't have any reason to trust me," Gabrielle agreed. "I am the ruler of a kingdom in a mystical land, one whom is probably unknown to witches of this world. But what is important is that about a year ago, I was courted by two men. However, only one of them claimed my heart. Jesse and I loved each other with a great passion, though he is a commoner and I of royalty. My advisors cautioned against the union, even tried to break the two of us apart."

Susan glanced upwards at those words. It seemed in any lifetime, people were determined to keep her away from her true love. It seemed that Gabrielle's love for this Jesse was much like her own for Shawn.

"He was afraid that our love for each other would destroy the two of us, and the kingdom as well," Gabrielle continued, unaware of Susan's inner torment. "I suppose that Jesse was right about that. The other man who tried to court me was as rich as he was powerful. And that is a very dangerous combination, Lady . . ."

"Susan," she replied. "Susan Dawson-Scott."

"Lady Susan," Gabrielle said, "I knew what kind of man he was when he tried to force me to marry him. When he tried to abduct me and force me into wedding vows, I was forced with no other alternative than to banish him from the kingdom. This proved to be an error of judgement, for he returned with an army and captured me. I only managed to get here with a spell, along with my cousin's vision of you and your brothers. He foresaw of three powerful good witches who could combat Lord Malum's forces and his own powerful magic."

"Your cousin?"

"Nathaniel," Gabrielle answered. "He is a seer; he has vision and premonitions of the future. I hoped that you would help us."

"I don't know about this," Susan admitted, running a hand through her dark hair. Then she paused, remembering the burning city in her dreams and the ancient sorcerer. "This Lord Malum . . . would he be a tall with dark hair and cold eyes?"

"That's him. Do you know him?"

"No, I've just been . . . having strange dreams that . . . may be connected with this." Susan frowned slightly at her. "Maybe not dreams at all, but a memory from a past life."

Gabrielle nodded, but didn't say anything. "Will you help us? If we don't do something, then the kingdom is doomed."

Susan suppressed a sigh, staring at the woman, closing her eyes. "Haley!" she called, heading out of the attic. "You come with me!" she added, seeing that Gabrielle wasn't following her. The noblewoman immediately followed the witchlighter down the stairs. "Haley, where are you?"

"What's wrong?" Haley appeared from the nursery, her eyes widening when she saw Susan's double. "What the . . .?"

"Don't ask," Susan replied. "Look, I need you to go up to the Elders and ask Them what They know about Lady Gabrielle, a Lord Malum, and a mystical kingdom. I'll watch Wyatt. Go."

Haley, though thoroughly confused, nodded and orbed out. Susan sighed, looking at her past self. "You'd better be telling me the truth about this," she warned her as she headed downstairs to call her brothers. Gabrielle watched with interest as she picked up the phone, her eyes wide.

"Hey, Luke," Susan said as her big brother picked up on the other end. "I'm really sorry to call, but—"

"It's okay, my second class got cancelled. What's up?"

Susan looked towards her past self for a moment and let out a sigh. "We've got a problem," she answered with a heaving sigh.

--

Malus was not a happy man. Just when he thought that everything was going according to plan, the little witch had slipped from his grasp. How could she have escaped? he wondered. There had been a spell cast around the castle so that no one could cast transportation spells. There wasn't any possible way she could have escaped _that_ way!

So . . .

So how could she have escaped? he thought furiously as he stormed down to the cellar, where Gabrielle's two cousins were being held prisoner. Nathaniel, the youngest of the three cousins, glanced up at him as he entered, his dark blue eyes filled with contempt and fury. Lucius didn't so much as move, though he became much more stiffer than usual.

"Where did your cousin escape to?" Malus demanded, glaring down at the two men. "Where is Gabrielle?"

Nathaniel smirked. "Well, that's our cousin for you. She was always good at figuring her way out of things. I'm frankly surprised that you let her escape so easily, though. What's the matter, one little witch is too strong for you, Malus?" His tone was taunting and each word made Malus's anger rise even further.

"You two are testing your fates," he whispered. "Now, where is the Lady Gabrielle? Where has she gone?"

"Don't know," Nathaniel said pleasantly. "But knowing that you're after her, she won't have stayed in one place for very long."

His dark eyes glittering with fury, Malus stared down at Nathaniel, wondering if he was telling the truth. Then he shrugged. Either way, it meant he could have another reason to torture these men that had been a pain in his side for so long.

"Guard," he said calmly and a hooded figure appeared. "Prepare the rack," he ordered him. The guard bowed and hurried away.

Malus glanced down at the two cousins and then left the dungeons, slamming the door behind him as he hurried back up the stairs, leaving them to watch him leave.

Once they were alone again, Nathaniel looked towards his elder cousin, something of relief in his dark blue eyes. "She's still alive," he whispered. Lucius nodded mutely, still frowning after Malus. "And she escaped, which means that she's gone to get help."

"From who?" Lucius said finally, turning to look at his cousin. "Everyone in the kingdom is in camps. There isn't anyone left to turn to."

"The Charmed Ones," Nathaniel said promptly. "In the future. That's where she's gone. Not to another place, but to another _time_. The spell Malus cast only prevents people from transporting themselves away to another place, not to another time."

Lucius suppressed a sigh, a hand running through his grimy blond hair. His light blue eyes were dull and expressionless. "Well, if she has the common sense, she'll stay away from here. I don't want to see our cousin sent to the executioner's block."

"But she will come back. You know that as well as I do. She's not going to leave us to our deaths. And she's going to come back for Jesse. She loves him with all of her heart."

Rolling his eyes, Lucius thought of the young man who had captured their cousin's heart. The tall, brunette man who had left her without a second thought. But something had never seemed right about his leaving. He had always made it perfectly plain that his loyalty and love belonged to Gabrielle. So why would he have left at the first sign of danger?

"He'll come back to her, Lucius," Nathaniel said firmly. "I know he will. Jesse loves her as much as she loves him. Everything will turn out all right in the end, you'll see."

A soft, bitter laugh escaped from Lucius. "Cousin, I wish I was as sure of that as you."


	14. A Love Imprisoned

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Fourteen: A Love Imprisoned

"Okay, let me see if I got this right," Lucas said slowly as he stared across the room at the past version of their sister. "This evil warlock has threatened your kingdom and is literally destroying everything to the ground and has your two cousins imprisoned. And because your kingdom is the heart for good magic, if he succeeds in his mission of conquering this kingdom, then our entire future is going to change and evil will gain the upper hand."

"If I understood your 21st century manner correctly, then yes," Gabrielle agreed. "Lucius and Nathaniel, who if I'm right, would be your past lives, have been imprisoned in my castle for the past three months, when the siege began." She sighed. "Nathaniel could have warned me that these were our future lives I was dealing with."

"He gets premonitions, too?" Nathan wanted to know. Gabrielle nodded. "Nice to know that my power isn't escalating very fast."

Susan smiled slightly, patting her brother's arm. "Don't worry, little brother, you'll get an active power soon enough. But what I'm confused about is Jesse's disappearance. You said that he disappeared right when Malus started his attack?" she questioned.

Gabrielle nodded, though she looked confused. "Yes, he vanished a couple hours after Malus launched an attack on the village. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know," Susan admitted. "Just a feeling I've got that maybe that's a key to this whole thing." She frowned slightly, running a hand through her dark curls. "Did you receive a message from him or anything? Any contact whatsoever in the past . . . however long it's been?"

"No, not a word. My cousins believe that he's abandoned me, but I know my Jesse." A smile crossed her face. "We planned it all. Nothing could tear us apart. It isn't like him to take off at the first sign of danger. Not unless he knew it was for the best."

"Sounds familiar," Lucas mumbled, glancing towards Susan. She shot him an icy glare. They both knew what he was thinking. Jesse sounded an awful lot like Shawn, leaving only to protect the love of their life. To protect them from an unspeakable wrath. The only difference was this was leaving Gabrielle to an unknown fate, not leaving to protect Susan from the anger of the Elders at the pregnancy and possibly future marriage.

"Okay, so what exactly did you want us to help you with?" Nathan asked. "To vanquish Malus?"

"My cousin said that you were the most powerful witches of all time," Gabrielle answered. "I hoped that your power might be enough to stop him. He was a good man until this happened, but I can't ignore the fact that he's destroying my world, my people. And I want a safe place to raise my children in. Jesse and I belong together and I have no doubt that we will grow old together and protect our kingdom together. But in order to do that, I will need your help."

The three siblings looked at each other, about to answer when white lights appeared in the room and Haley materialised.

"Hey, there's my boy," she said, taking Wyatt from Susan and hoisting him onto her hip. Susan rolled her eyes, but relinquished her nephew to his mother. "Okay, good news or bad news?" she asked when Susan gave her a 'well?' look.

"Just cut to the chase," Susan sighed. "You've been spending way too much time Up There, Hales. You're learning to drive me nuts."

"Doesn't take too much these days," Nathan sniggered. Susan glared at him and Lucas threw a pillow at him.

"I have said it before and now I'll say it again," Susan snapped, "if I could _freeze_ the two of you, then I would. Often."

Haley smiled slightly. "Okay, so . . . the Elders confirmed Lady Gabrielle's story. That her kingdom is being conquered by a Lord Malus and if we don't find a way to stop it, then dark magic will rule the future and everything will have changed. All the good that you guys have done will be lost. None of may ever have been born because of it."

"Wha . . . how does that work?" Susan demanded, incredulous. "We are already here, standing in place. How could we cease to exist by him taking over this kingdom? What makes sense about that?"

"You know," Gabrielle commented. Everyone looked at her. "I've found it best to leave questions about magic and time travel alone. You'll find it can give you more headaches than you would've imagined."

"Good point," Nathan agreed.

Lucas smiled slightly. "Okay, so when we get to your kingdom, what are we supposed to do? How do we stop him?" His light blue eyes focused on Gabrielle as she stood up.

"I'm hoping that with your combined powers and my magic, we'll be able to vanquish him. And if that doesn't work, then we can imprison him, trap him so that he will never be able to harm anyone ever again. He'll be trapped where he can never break free."

"I don't really think that's a good idea," Susan argued. "What if somebody accidentally set him free? Then we'd be in the mess again. And this time, he'd be ready for us."

"Then what do you suggest?"

Susan sighed. "A Power of Three spell," she answered. "Those have never failed us before, I don't see why they should now. And if it doesn't, then maybe there's something else we can try."

"What?" Nathan asked, glancing at his sister.

"Well, let's see if this works, then I'll let you in on it," Susan answered with a smile. "But first, we need to get to your kingdom. So let's get to the kitchen, I'll start working on potions to be on the safe side while you guys work on a transporting spell and a vanquishing spell."

"Why potions?"

"Because the last time we time travelled, we lost our powers when we went back," Susan answered. "I don't want to be trapped in the past without my powers and with no reinforcements."

Lucas considered; she had a point. "All right, let's get start on this, then," he said. Everyone headed into the kitchen.

--

Malus walked into the secret tunnel that he had discovered a long time ago, before he had come up with the plan to take over Gabrielle's kingdom. So far, it had proven to be useful to him. Especially for keeping one very important prisoner secret. He didn't want anybody finding out what had really happened during the attack on the kingdom. As the door shut behind him, he walked down the steps.

A terrible smile crossed his face as he surveyed the young man who was help limply in front of him, supported only by the chains that bound his wrists. "Good morning, Jesse," he said pleasantly, biting into the apple he'd brought with him. "How has your day been so far?"

Jesse pushed himself up with what little strength he had left and spat, accurately, on the toe of Malus's polished boot. The hatred and fury in his eyes was all too clear.

_Interesting,_ Malus thought in surprise. _I didn't think he'd have the strength of will to withstand my power this long. But then, fools who do love have remarkable strength, I'll give them that. It's too bad that strength always fails in the end. _

"Oh, dear. I had hoped that you would take me up on my offer. You would survive this chaos and I would enjoy seeing the look on your lady's face when she realised that her true love has abandoned her to evil. That would be well worth it," he added deliciously.

"Believe me when I say this, Malus," Jesse growled, his brown eyes blazing with fury. "I will never turn my back on Gabrielle. Just as she will never turn her back on me."

"Really? Because she has swallowed that lie that you have abandoned her at the first sign of trouble. It seems your love's faith in you has grown thin. After all, she has no proof of where you have gone." Malus chuckled. "It will not be long, boy, before your love dies or turns her back on you. She can escape all of this merely by giving me what I want. I know perfectly well that the only way to keep the throne permanently is by marrying the only heir to the throne and ruling legally." Malus shrugged. "So if she doesn't want her people to die, then Gabrielle will consent to marry me."

"If she returns, you mean." Malus froze. "Oh, yes, I know all about her disappearance right underneath your nose. Bet that caused a bit of speculation amongst your jailers, didn't it? The prize vanishing right when you had her."

"She may be gone, but she will return. After all, she won't abandon her people or her cousins. Lucius and Nathaniel are still here. And perhaps you may prove useful to my plan, if you stay alive long enough."

Jesse swallowed. "No matter what you do to me, Gabrielle will make the right choice for her kingdom and her people. She always does. And believe me what I say that consenting to marry you is not the right choice. Gabrielle knows that better than anyone. Giving the people a tyrant for a king would be worse than the fate you have in store for them if she refuses."

Malus swung his hand and Jesse doubled over, gasping in pain. He shook his head to clear it, blood appearing on the mixture of already dried blood, dirt, and vomit. His breath was coming out in little gasps.

"Insolent boy," he muttered. "When that girl returns, she will marry me unless she wants to see you die. And when she does, you will be banished from this kingdom. No one in all of the kingdom will dare shelter you."

"Why is it . . ." Jesse retorted with what little dignity he had left, "that the evil ones always feel to need to share their plans with the enemy?" He shook his head in exasperation.

"For perspective, lad. And so that you can drown yourself in your miseries of what will happen if I don't get my way." Malus smiled broadly as he turned on his back. "I would consider getting yourself ready. Unless Lady Gabrielle returns and accepts my offer, then you will die at daybreak. With her cousins, I should imagine. They're more trouble than they're worth."

With a flapping of his cape, the warlock vanished behind the door again, leaving Jesse to his most unpleasant thoughts.

_Whatever happens, my love,_ Jesse thought, praying that she could hear him, no matter where she was. _You must not try and save me. Do what is right for your people. Even if we must sacrifice our happiness in this time, I pray that we will find each other in another lifetime and that we will find some way to be together. _


	15. Susan's Plan

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Fifteen: Susan's Plan

"Okay, are you sure it's a good idea for you guys to go by yourselves?" Brooke asked worriedly as she paced in the attic worriedly while Susan drew the Triquetra on the wall. "Maybe we should just find a baby-sitter so Haley and I can go with you."

"Brooke, it's not going to be like last time," Lucas said reassuringly. "We go to the past, vanquish this Malus guy, and we'll be back home in a little bit. It's no big deal."

"You realise every time that we say that, they come back with a vengeance?" Susan mumbled. Her brother glared at her, but she only flashed him an award-winning smile. "Look, Brooke, I'd feel much better knowing that my niece and nephew were in the capable hands of their mothers. And you do not want me worrying, do you? It could cause stress and that's not good for the baby, you know."

"Susan, you play dirty," Brooke whined, making a face at her sister-in-law, but she was grinning.

"All is fair in love and war," Susan said dramatically. She tugged on a strand of her dark hair before tossing the chalk on the table. "Okay, we are ready for this. Got the potions, got the spells, now where are Gabrielle and Nathan?"

"We're right here," Nathan complained, herding into the attic, Gabrielle right behind him. "Just getting a few last minute essentials." He had a box in his hand, which Susan frowned slightly at. "Crystals for a cage, in case we need to trap him," he explained to her questioning look. "It won't hold him for long, but it might help."

"Luke, should we be worried?" Susan questioned, glancing at their brother. She smiled as her eyes twinkled with merriment. "Our little brother is actually using his brain."

"That's a first," Lucas joked.

"You two are cruel," Haley said, smiling. "Quit picking on my husband. And take care of him while you guys are gone."

"Haley, when do we do anything but?" Susan sighed. "All right, let's get this over with. I have to get back to finishing up cleaning my closet so it can be converted into a nursery."

"Sue, why are you even worrying about the nursery this early?" Nathan wanted to know. "You're barely even showing."

"Because if I don't, then demons will start swarming and then I'll be in my ninth month, ready to deliver, and nothing will be done." Susan shrugged. "Better to get ahead early than be behind."

Nathan shook his head. "Crazy girl," he commented. "Okay, let's do this thing," he said, joining his brother and sister by the Triquetra. "Gabrielle, you should probably read this with us too."

The noblewoman nodded as she joined the siblings. Speaking as one, she and the Charmed Ones chanted:

_"Send us now to kingdom come,_

_its future threatened because of one._

_Through history, let us cross,_

_so it will not be lost._

_Our powers keep with us,_

_so not restrained is a must."_

The Triquetra that Susan had drawn sparkled blue and white as the portal through time appeared. "Maybe we should leave that up this time," Susan commented. "You never know when we're going to need it."

"That's a good idea," Lucas sighed as they walked through the portal. Brooke and Haley watched on with worry as the portal closed behind them.

"Good luck," Haley whispered.

--

As the portal appeared some thousand or so years in the past, in a mystical kingdom, the four companions tumbled out of it, looking around the castle that they had arrived in.

"Are we here?" Lucas whispered as he looked around. The corridor around them was dark and empty. He looked towards Lady Gabrielle. "Is this where we're supposed to be?"

She nodded. "Yes, this is my palace," she whispered. "This is my home. Or at least it was, before Malus began to destroy everything that my kingdom stood for." She shook her head just as a figure appeared from beyond the corridor. Nathan's head shot towards him.

"Well, well, well, Gabrielle," a sinister voice spoke up. The noblewoman froze when she heard it, turning towards the man who had appeared. "What have we here?"

"Malus," Gabrielle whispered.

Susan's hands flicked out, attempting to freeze him, but nothing happened. "I _hate_ time travel," she muttered as the man stepped even closer to him. She reached inside her pocket for her potions, but the man held up his hand threateningly.

"I don't think so, my dear," he commented. "Because if you attempt to attack us . . ." He snapped his fingers and a number of archers appeared on the balcony above them. "We will attack you."

Susan glanced towards her brother and sighed; while she was perfectly willing to risk her own life, she was not about to put her son at risk. Her hand dropped to her side and Lucas moved protectively in front of her.

"Take them away," Malus said quietly. "Except for her," he added, nodding towards her. "I have a special place for her." The smile that he was giving her gave her a pretty good idea what he had in store for her. If her past self wouldn't submit to marriage to this monster, then he was going to try the same thing to her future self.

"Sue, don't try anything before we get there," Lucas hissed towards her. "As soon as we get away from these idiots, we'll come and find you."

"Don't worry about me, Luke," she said out of the corner of her mouth. "I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. Just trust me. I've got an idea." The only problem was finding out where Malus would keep someone of great importance, one that he wanted to keep hidden.

"Now, my dear girl, do you really want me to have your . . . brothers, is it? Do you want me to have them put to death? Would you be willing to sacrifice anything to save them? You could stay here and have power beyond your wildest dreams?"

"Oh, jeez," Susan muttered. "World domination? I think that's a little cliché. Besides, I've got enough power that I want, sometimes more than. And I like my life the way that it is. Which means that I am going to be stopping you, if it's the last thing that I do. There's no way that I'm going to watch my nieces and nephews grow up in a world full of evil and there's no way I'm going to raise my _sons_ in that world."

"Not even to save Gabrielle's lover?" Malus remarked, looking at her in triumph.

"So Jesse is alive," Susan said calmly, placing her hands on her hips. Malus scowled. "I had a feeling that there was more to his disappearance than Gabrielle knew. The only question is, where is he?"

"I'm not going to tell you that."

"No?" Quick as a flash, Susan seized a sword off of the wall and a dagger, aiming them both proficiently at Malus.

A laugh escaped from the warlock. "My dear child, you really don't expect me to believe that you can defeat me? I, the son of nobles and kings, and who have powers beyond your imagination? I've been trained in the arts of war, my lady. You do not want to cross me."

"I thought I already had," Susan retorted. Malus shrugged and pulled out his own sword, taking position. "Besides, you threaten my family and you mess with me."

"So I did," Malus agreed. He launched an attack onto Susan, which she blocked and formed a defensive position, parrying her way left and right to avoid his blows and strike a blow of her own.

As he raised his sword to strike, she turned herself sideways, getting out of the way just in time, but barely managed to escape the graze of his sword on her shoulder. She winced slightly as she felt the blade, but as she glanced at the wound, she felt a twinge in her stomach and cool, healing sensation surged through it as the familiar healing light appeared and the wound disappeared.

Malus froze when he saw that, his gaze widening when she got to her feet. "How . . . how did you do that?" he demanded.

Susan only smiled passively. "Well, apparently my son prefers for his mother to be unharmed," she answered. Taking advantage of the situation, she knocked the sword out of his hand and aimed her own at his throat. He swallowed, the fear obvious in his eyes. "Now, I am going to ask you again; where is Jesse?"


	16. Lucas's New Power

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Sixteen: Lucas's New Power

Lucas barely managed to telekinetically throw the arrow back towards their castors, vanquishing them, before someone managed to throw a rope around his neck, choking him. Nathan, who had managed to grab hold of a sword, slammed it down, slicing the rope in two.

"You really need to watch yourself, big brother," he said dryly as Gabrielle used some ice crystals to immobilise the demons, freezing them. Not like Susan could, like they were frozen in time, but literally freezing them. The demons were encased in a large ice cube.

"Impressive," Lucas commented as the room was cleared of the demons. "Now, we need to find Susan before she gets herself killed."

"Yeah, that's gonna be kind of a problem," Nathan said, scratching his head. "I can't get a premonition and we don't know where she is. Where do you think he would be taking her?" he asked Gabrielle.

"To do what I myself have refused to commit to," Gabrielle answered solemnly. "He wants to bind her in marriage. Since your sister is my future self, he thinks that it will be enough to declare himself ruler of my kingdom. You have to admire his dedication."

"But Susan would never agree to that!" Lucas said, desperate. "She's going to be risking not only her life, but her son's as well! We've _got_ to find her!"

"Lucas—"

But whatever his brother was about to say, Lucas never found out. One minute, he was standing in the room with Gabrielle, Nathan, and about a dozen or so frozen demons. And then the next, he had appeared in the middle of a room, where Susan had Malus at swordpoint.

Her blue-green eyes were wide, but other than a tear on her shirt, she appeared to be unharmed. She didn't take any notice of her older brother at first as Lucas stepped into the room.

"Sue?" he asked cautiously, wondering how he could have possibly gotten here.

Susan screamed, whirling around to look at him, shocked and alarmed. Once she saw who it was, however, she calmed down. "Lucas Eugene Scott, you scared the living daylights out of me!" she shouted, glaring furiously at him. "How did you get in here?"

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure," Lucas commented, wetting his lips as he noticed that she still had a sword pointed at Malus. "Sue, what are you doing?"

"Trying to find out where Jesse's at," Susan said simply. Lucas's eyebrows raised. "He's still here, Luke. He," she added, nodding towards Malus, "captured him and is going to hold him hostage for Gabrielle. So I'm thinking that if we can get them together—"

"You think that it's that simple?"

"Don't you?" Susan questioned, narrowing her eyebrows together. Her blue-green eyes looked straight into his blue ones.

Lucas let out a sigh. Susan sometimes was one of the brightest people that he knew, but other times . . . well, she still had this fairy tale idea that love could conquer anything. It hadn't helped with her and Shawn, had it? The love that she had for their Whitelighter hadn't helped her. All it had done was made her lose him right when they had conceived a child . . . and now that child would grow up without a father, like Susan had.

But as Susan had pointed out, he would also grow up like Lucas had. His uncles would be like fathers to him, like Keith had been to him.

"Sue, it _can't_ be as simple as that," he told her now. "It can't."

"Yes, Susan, why don't you listen to your brother?" Malus said in his silkiest voice.

Susan rolled her eyes. "You, shut up, all right? I don't want to listen to you talk," she informed him. "And I thought that we had seen the last when we vanquished Dan," she said gloomily. Lucas smiled faintly. "Luke, you may not believe that love can fix everything, but you have to admit, we have to at least try. Gabrielle has to at least understand that Jesse hasn't betrayed her. I may have to live with that, but she doesn't."

Lucas sighed. He knew in his heart that she was right. At the very least, she needed to know that what Jesse had done was not of his own free will. "What do you suggest?"

"Find her cousins and meet me in the great hall," Susan told him. "And how did you get here?"

"I told you, I don't know. One minute, I was standing with Nathan and Gabrielle, the next I'm here with you."  
"Like you disappeared?" Susan questioned, arching her eyebrows. Lucas nodded. "Oh, Lucas!" She looked thrilled. "I think you got a new power! You must be materialising!"

"Materialising?" Lucas echoed, slightly startled. "What do you mean by materialising?" Sometimes, he wished that she didn't study up on their magical heritage so much. Often times, it was a blessing, but other times, he really wished she out of the house a little more.

"Kind of like my orbing, except it a witch's power," Susan explained. "I guess because you can move things, you can move yourself?"

"Makes sense," Lucas sighed. "Of all the times for me to get a new power, it had to be now . . . I was just getting control of my telekinesis."

"I'll meet you upstairs," Susan said lightly. Then she paused. "Uh . . . Luke, why is it that you have your powers, but I don't?"

"Well, you know what Sh—Haley said," he said, changing the name in midsentence. He wasn't about to say their Whitelighter's name right now. Susan's eyes darkened slightly when she heard the name. "Our powers are tied to our emotions. Maybe because you're so edgy right now, you're not having such a good control over them?"

"Great," Susan complained.

"Are you sure you're going to be all right alone with him?" Lucas questioned, glancing towards Malus, who was still looking edgily at the sword in Susan's hand, wondering if he could snatch it without her noticing.

"Oh, yeah, don't worry about it," Susan answered. "Besides, I'm not alone. Apparently the baby would prefer for Mommy to be invincible," she said solemnly. "It's about time he started showing powers. Brooke was throwing stuff around the room by the time she was three months pregnant and Haley wasn't even a month when Wyatt threw up his shield and stuff."

"Wait a minute, your son did what?"

"Details, later," she explained. "You just go and find the others and meet me in the great hall. Luke, I'll be fine," she assured him, noting his concerned expression. "Trust me," she added, when he still didn't look convinced. "I'm not about to put my son at risk."

"Aren't you already doing that?" Lucas mumbled, but did as he said. "Okay, so how exactly does your orbing work?"

"Well, when I'm trying to get to someone, I just focus on that person and picture them in my mind and just . . . orb. Then I get pulled into their direction." Susan shrugged. "Just wing it, Luke."

"Big help," Lucas scoffed as he tried to use his materialising power again to find his brother. After a couple of failed attempts, he finally managed to grasp the power again and materialised towards his brother.

But of course, he didn't have much control and went flying into a suit of armour. Nathan let out an exclamation as he hurried to help his brother up. "Are you okay? Where'd you go?" he asked, worried.

"New power," Lucas explained. "I'll explain later. Come on, we've got to find your cousins and then meet Susan in the great hall, wherever that is," he told Gabrielle, who looked perplexed.

"But what about—"

"Nate, Susan's got a plan, which means that she has something up her sleeve," Lucas sighed. "For now, let's just do what she says. She's got pretty good instincts."

"Except when it comes to guys," Nathan grumbled.

"Yeah."

--

"Do you really think that just by revealing to Gabrielle that her worthless fiancé is still alive and didn't betray her, the kingdom will be saved?" Malus asked as he led Susan down the hall. The pointy edge was enough to remind him that he could easily lose his life if he didn't lead her the right way. "There is more going on here than you know."

"I have no doubt of that," Susan replied. "So tell me, who exactly is behind this whole thing?" Malus's head snapped towards her. "I had a feeling that you were just a puppet in this whole thing. So who is really behind this mess? The Source?"

_Right in one,_ she thought when Malus's eyes widened in horror. She hadn't really thought that the Source of All Evil had lived this long, but it seemed that demons lived a lot longer than humans did.

"He wanted to lure us here and take us out here and now, before our own time," she commented. "So that we couldn't save Gabrielle and our entire world would plunge into darkness." She smiled pleasantly. "How close am I?"

"It doesn't matter," Malus said, shaking his head. "You can vanquish me or not, that's your choice, but the Source isn't going to give up. He'll continue to haunt you even if you succeed here. He wants you gone, so evil will finally gain the upper hand."

"Jeez, do you guys ever think about anything else?" she mused as she saw the door up ahead. "Is that it?" Malus nodded miserably. "Unlock it."

He hesitated, but slowly lifted the key off of his belt, placing it in the lock, turning it clockwise. The lock clicked open and he stepped downstairs. Susan gasped aloud when the scene met her eyes.

Because the man that was sitting on the ground, chained to the wall, was none other than Shawn McCade!


	17. Walking Into a Trap

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Seventeen: Walking into a Trap

"Okay, so how much further is it to the dungeons?" Nathan asked as they followed Gabrielle down the flights of stairs. It was taking them forever to get there because they kept running into demons bent on killing them. Nothing new there, but he was starting to get worried about leaving Susan alone for too long. She did tend to get into trouble if she was left alone.

Gabrielle glanced at him over her shoulder, blue-green eyes anxious and worried. He wondered vaguely if she looked so much like his sister because they were the same person or because his soul was recognising hers.

"Not much further, just down these steps here," she said as they at long last reached the bottom of the steps and she pushed a key through the keyhole, but to their dismay, it remained locked. "Wonderful, they've changed the locks."

"Let me try something," Lucas said, walking past Gabrielle and bending down towards the lock, inspecting it carefully, his eyebrows knitted together.

"Luke, what are you doing?" Nathan asked as he joined his brother, leaning against the wall and watching him perform his magic. Lucas glanced up at him and grinned.

"Medieval hot-wiring," he replied as he returned his gaze to the lock and pointing his fingers towards it, directing insides of the locks. It took a few minutes for him to telekinetically work the lock, but to Nathan's great relief, it clicked open.

"Well, thank goodness something is working right today," he said as the door swung open and Gabrielle hurried inside, followed by the two brothers. Nathan glanced back up the stairs, feeling as though they were being followed, before going into the room.

If seeing his sister's past life was strange, then seeing his own was even more so, even though he'd been expecting it. But seeing himself in medieval clothes and his brother in the same, hugging their sis—cousin, he mentally corrected himself—was almost astounding.

"Thank goodness you're safe," Lucius was saying as he greeted Gabrielle warmly. "When we heard you'd escaped from Malus, we feared the worst."

"Don't you know that no news is good news?" Gabrielle said with a small smile, and Lucius only smiled at her, shaking his head. Nathaniel grinned as he hugged her tightly.

"Okay, we have to get out of here before more of those demons show up," Lucas suggested, heading towards the exit. But before they could return to the exit and leave the room, a figure flamed into view, stopping them in their tracks.

"Well, well, gentlemen, you made it down here," Malus said with a smirk towards the brothers. "I must say that I'm quite impressed. Where's that sister of yours, anyway?"

Nathan blinked in surprise, glancing sideways at his brother, who stared at Malus, frowning slightly. "Luke, didn't you say—" he began, but Lucas stepped on his foot, silently telling him to shut up.

"That's really none of your business, is it?" Lucas asked him, folding his arms across his chest as he glared scathingly at the warlock. "So, who's the phony who was impersonating you earlier?"

"Caught onto to that, did you, boy?" Malus smirked, an evil glint in his eyes. "How interesting. Remind me to kill him. He's a nobody, just one of those pathetic Lower-level demons that are more trouble than they are worth. Sort of like you and your brother and sister."

Nathan was about to walk forward and give him a good punch, but Lucas grabbed him and pulled him back. "Why can't you just let me punch him, once?" he complained.

"Because we don't need more trouble than we've got right now," Lucas whispered at him.

It hadn't dawned on him that the dungeons was suddenly crawling with demons, surrounding them on all sides. His dark blue eyes flickered around, trying to find a way out, because if they stayed here, then there was a pretty good chance that they were going to get killed.

"Now, you five have been a thorn in my side since I first laid eyes on you," Malus commented, stepping further into the room. "I would enjoy taking your lives myself, but I have plans to take care of. That sister of yours is going to take Gabrielle's place as my wife." He walked out of the room, leaving the two Scotts and three nobles to their fate.

"Okay, anybody got any ideas?" Lucas wanted to know, glancing around at them. "Because I am open to them."

"We go after the two in front of us first," Nathan suggested.

"All right, and then what?"

"We got after the two on our lefts."

"Oh, sure." Lucas rolled his eyes at his brother just as fireballs appeared in the demons fireballs. "Take cover!"

"Get down!" Nathan wasn't sure who shouted this, or if it had been all of them, but fireballs suddenly streamed over them as he flattened himself onto the ground. From the screams of pain and the explosions, he guessed that the demons had managed to take each other out, but there was still quite a few of them left.

"If we live through this," he threw at his brother as he rolled out of the way, seizing a spear and driving it through a demon. "Remind me to yell at Susan for this crazy idea of hers!"

"Sure!" Lucas yelled back. "But let's make sure she lives through this, too." He glanced at his brother. "Both her and the baby."

--

_No, no, no, it can't be . . . _Susan thought, staring in mixture of astonishment and amazement at—whom she thought—was Shawn standing in front of her, her reason caught up with her senses. It _couldn't_ be. Shawn was still in the future. He hadn't known where they'd gone. Granted, he could've followed them here to keep an eye on them, but . . . but why would he? And why would he even be dressed in those medieval clothes if he were?

Shawn's look-alike was staring at her in the same fashion that she was staring at him with and then he whispered in a scratchy voice, "Gabrielle? Is it you?" He sounded ecstatic and at his words, Susan understood. This was _Jesse_.

Her Whitelighter had been her lover in a past life. They had loved each other another lifetime ago . . . and he'd probably known it. The next time that she saw him, she was going to punch him in the nose and she wasn't going to feel even remotely sorry about it either.

"No," Susan said at long last, shaking her head. "I'm not Gabrielle. My name is Susan Dawson-Scott. I'm from the future and I'm here to take you to her, Jesse." The name sounded so strange to be addressing him with, but she couldn't deny it; that was who he was. He wasn't Shawn McCade yet.

"What? You're who?" Jesse stared at her in confusion now, even more so when he saw that she had Malus at swordpoint.

"Long story, but we have to get you out of here," Susan said as she led Malus over to him. "Unlock the chains," she ordered him. Malus hesitated and she pressed the sword further into his neck. That was all the persuasion that he needed to retrieve the keys from his belt and fumble with the locks.

Jesse stumbled for a moment as he was released and Susan grabbed his hand to steady him. "Okay, we have to get you out of here," she said, supporting him. Malus suddenly looked upwards.

"You're too late," he said suddenly, a gleam in his eye. "My master has come. He's here."

Susan's heart stopped when she heard that. The _Source_ was here; he was coming for them. And her brothers were walking straight into a trap. Neither Lucas nor Nathan knew anything about the Source of all Evil being here . . . they didn't know he was behind this.

"You—" she began, about to throttle Malus when he suddenly screamed, exploding in a series of flames. She blinked, looking around. "Wait a minute, what just happened?"

"The Source," Jesse mumbled. "He must've killed him, before Malus said too much."

"How do you know about the Source?" Susan asked kindly as she helped him walk. He was gaining strength the longer that he was up and about, however, strengthening his unused limbs. She let go of his arm, her heart paining slightly as she glanced towards him. As she thought about her own Shawn, the baby gave her a small kick to the kidney and she winced slightly, rubbing her stomach slightly.

"We've been fighting him ever since the old ones can remember," Jesse said thoughtfully. "And Gabrielle and her cousins are the only ones with enough power to stop him." He paused. "You said that you're from the future, didn't you, milady? So . . . are you Gabrielle, in this time? Are you . . .?"

"Yes," Susan said quietly. "Yes, I'm her future self. And my brothers, Lucas and Nathan, are her cousins' future selves. It's all very complicated," she added calmly as Jesse stared at her in amazement. "I'm not even sure how it all works myself. Are you all right to run?"

"Of course," Jesse said, his brown eyes gleaming at the challenge. "Race you to the great hall!" He pulled away from her and broke into a run.

"No fair! Head start for the pregnant lady!" Susan yelled after him as she hurried to catch up. She couldn't help grinning, though, even though they were in danger at every moment.

It didn't take them long to reach the great hall and when they finally did, Susan stopped dead in her tracks, her heart leaping into her throat when she did so.

Because in the great hall waiting for them wasn't her brothers, Gabrielle, or her brothers' past lives. It wasn't even the Source.

The man who turned towards her was the one that she had just seen vanquished in front of her very eyes. It was Lord Malus.


	18. A Sister in Danger

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Eighteen: A Sister in Danger

Malus's smile broadened when he saw the stricken and astonished look on the witchlighter's face. "How wonderful to see you, Lady Susan," he said calmly. "As for you, you pathetic excuse for a witch," he added to Jesse, "I should have disposed of you when I had the chance."

Jesse's eyes narrowed and he began to walk forward, about to attack Malus when Susan placed a hand on his arm, stopping him. "Don't," she whispered, trying to think of a way to get them out of this. Preferably alive.

"Wise chose, my dear lady," Malus said lightly. "After all, you don't want anything to happen to your love, now would you?"

"Oh, shut up, why don't you?" Susan snapped, angry. "If you were up here the entire time, the who was the guy that we just saw vanquished?" She placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"That would've been one of my shape-shifting associates," Malus answered with a shrug. "They come in handy when I need to fool my enemies." He smiled. "And obviously, it worked. Just out of curiosity, how did you find your way to the dungeons?" he questioned, looking at her with interest.

Susan glared at him, wishing that she had Lucas's power. She would _love _to send him flying into the wall a couple of times. "I'm _Charmed_," she answered as calmly as she could under the circumstances. He only snorted, stepping towards her.

"Not for long, my dear," he told her. "Very soon, you are going to be my wife and the future ruler of this world. And then we will conceive an heir more powerful than any being. He will be the most powerful creature to ever walk this universe."

"Um . . . actually, that's my _nephew_," Susan informed him. His eyes narrowed at her wit and he conjured a fireball to throw at her, but Jesse pulled her out of the way just in time, narrowly missing the second fireball that was thrown their way.

Susan got to her feet and flicked her wrist, freezing the fireballs. "Okay, now would be a really good time for Lucas and Nathan to show up," she grumbled.

But to her astonishment, the fireballs unfroze and went flying backwards towards the warlock, throwing him off of his feet. Her eyes went wide and she looked down at her stomach.

"Good baby," she whispered, her hands moving over her stomach. The jacket she was wearing concealed her pregnancy somewhat; if nobody knew about it, then they wouldn't see it. "Very good baby. Attaboy."

She glanced up as Malus got to his feet, eyes like daggers. "Okay, why didn't the fireballs vanquish him?" she wondered, glancing at Jesse.

"You're dealing with a much deadlier warlock than you've dealt with in your time, Lady Susan," Malus said coldly. "It's going to take much more to vanquish me. And unfortunately for you," he added, conjuring another fireball, "your time is running out."

Susan turned towards Jesse, looking at him with pleading eyes. "Go find Gabrielle and my brothers, NOW!"

He hesitated, but seeing the look in her eyes, he took off to find the others and she looked towards Malus. "You're not demon enough to kill me," she told him, placing her hands on her hips. "I kill demons every day, I watched my uncle get murdered in front of my very eyes. In order to protect future innocents and my niece and nephews, I had to vanquish my father, _twice_. I listened to my future son tell me about his little brother's demise when he was only five. You think that I'm afraid of you?"

"Well, it seems to me that you're running out of ideas," Malus said calmly. "Witches always start the bantering when they've got nothing else to hide behind."

With a jolt of electricity, he flung it had her, sending Susan flying backwards into the wall. The last thing that she felt before she lost consciousness was the terrible pain that was wrenching near her abdomen.

--

Just as Lucas vanquished the last demon, he was already sprinting towards the door, ready to go and rescue Susan from whatever trouble that she may have just run into. But he was almost knocked off of his feet by someone racing into the room.

"What the—" he began, but he looked up his sentence got lost in his throat someplace. Because standing in front of him, looking absolutely panic-stricken, was Shawn McCade!

"What are you doing here?" Nathan demanded just as Lucas noticed the medieval clothes that the father of their unborn nephew was wearing. An uneasy and impossible though surged through him. Was Jesse and Shawn the same person?

His unspoken question was answered almost immediately by Gabrielle, who let out a shriek and threw her arms around Shawn in an otherwise unseemly fashion for a noblewoman. "Oh, Jesse, thank goodness," she whispered, kissing him tenderly and brushing his dingy brown hair out of his brown eyes. "I thought that I'd lost you."

"Not a chance," Jesse told her tenderly. "Not a chance, my love. But we have to wait for the reunion later," he added, glancing towards the brothers. "Your sister is upstairs battling with Malus. She told me to come and find you."

"Is she out of her mind?" Lucas yelled, racing towards the stairs, Nathan at his heels. "She's going to get herself killed!"

"Yeah, I wouldn't have just left her there, but she got this look in her eyes that Gabrielle gets," Jesse said, glancing at his lady with a small, impish grin. "It's impossible to argue with her. Considering that Gabrielle is your sister's past self, I didn't think it would do any good."

"He's got the measure of her all right," Nathan grumbled. "If we get back to the future, remind me to kill our Whitelighter. 'Cause you _know_ that he had to know about this."

"Is Shawn even still our Whitelighter?" Lucas muttered. "We haven't even see him for four months, since Sue got pregnant." His mouth went dry when those words left his lips. Pregnant . . . oh, god, Susan's _baby_ was possibly in even bigger danger . . .

By the time that they had reached the great hall, Lucas was racing with such stride that he didn't think that he had possessed. His psychology teacher was right, he thought, fear really did make you have greater strength that you knew you had.

When they reached the great hall, Lucas skidded to a stop, arriving just in time to see Susan hit in the stomach by a bolt of lightning and flung backwards. Lucas flung out his hand, slowing his sister's speed as she hit the wall, ever so gently, and lowered her to the ground. Her face was pale and her hand moved towards her stomach as her eyelids fluttered closed.

Nathan screamed so loudly that Lucas's eardrum almost burst. "SUSAN!" He raced towards their sister, Lucas at his feet, and both brothers knelt down beside their fallen sister.

"Come on, Sue," Lucas whispered, pulling his sister's head into his lap and stroking her dark hair. "Come on, wake up, little sister, you've _got_ to wake up."

He looked up when he heard cackling and saw Malus laughing wildly, his eyes filled with triumph. "Oh, I daresay that this will be the end of you pathetic Charmed Ones," he commented. "And your precious future will fall as your sister lies dying."

Nathan looked towards Lucas with fear and panic in his eyes. "Power of Three spell," he whispered.

Lucas shook his head, wondering if his brother was losing it. "Nate, we all have to say it, all right? We've got to find a way to save Sue first," he pointed out, trying to figure a way out of this.

"It still might work," Nathan said desperately. "Let's try it, all right, take her hand."

Although he was seriously considering having the hospital check his brother out when they got home—if they got back home—Lucas did as he told him. "All right, you got a spell?"

"Of course, I'm the spell whiz, remember?" Nathan gave him a weak smile, which only told Lucas how scared he was.

_"We call upon ancient forces far and near,_

_powers of past and future, there and here,_

_hear our words, hear our cry,_

_summon the magic by and by. _

_Evil forces threatened this time,_

_and within this path of good. _

_Vanquish him here and now, _

_in this place and within this time._

_For all and future time." _

As Nathan finished speaking the last word, Malus let out a scream and thrashed as he turned into a ball of flame and was vanquished. The only thing that was left of him was a scorch mark on the floor where he had been standing.

"Thank goodness," Gabrielle whispered. "It's over."

Lucas ignored her, turning his attention back towards his sister, who was whimpering slightly. "Sue," he whispered, "come on, it's me, it's Luke. Wake up, little sister, come on, kiddo. You've _got _to wake up, for me and Nate and for your son. He needs his mom alive. Your son already lost his father, don't take away too, before he's even born."

Nathan let out an exclamation and Lucas turned to look at his brother. His dark blue eyes were wide and Lucas followed his brother's gaze.

Because starting to form at the bottom of Susan's jeans' zipper was the unmistakable sign of blood.


	19. Love Conquers All

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Nineteen: Love Conquers All

Susan opened her eyes slightly and stood up, looking around her at the bright and open field that she had appeared in, frowning slightly. The last thing that she remembered was Lucas pleading for her to open her eyes before she lost consciousness. Malus was vanquished; she remembered Nathan chanting a spell that had destroyed him, so . . . what had happened?

Her blue-green eyes stared around her and she took a step forward, noticing for the first time the pale blue dress that she was wearing. The skirt fell slightly below the knees and had long-sleeved, see-through sleeves with a pretty, flowery pattern on them. She inspected the dress with interest before she looked around her again.

"Mommy! Mommy!"

Turning around, she bent down just in time to scoop up the little blond boy that was running towards her, burying his face into her chest. She held him close to her, smoothing his blond hair down and kissing the top of his head. It was the same little boy that she had seen in the cemetery with her uncle, the one that she was pregnant with at that very moment.

"My boy," she whispered softly, holding onto him as he looked up at her with a tear-stained face. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"It hurts, Mommy," he whimpered, clinging to her again. "It hurts so much . . . am I dying?"

Susan's head whirled at the thoughts that spun in her mind as he spoke those words. She immediately remembered the wrenching pain that had emerged from her abdomen before she blacked out. Was it possible that . . . was she losing the baby?

"No, you're not dying," Susan protesting, trying to deny this fact. She hugged him tightly again, looking around her again, at the bright, open field that they were standing in.

Was it possible that they were already dead? she thought, alarm rising through her. She had never thought to ask Shawn or Uncle Keith about what happened after people died. Was this some sort of transference place? Like a gateway between the living and the dead?

But the last time that she had been almost dead, when her uncle had taken her to the future, the gateway had looked a _little_ bit different. She was still in the same place, but everything was missing. Her father, his little demon friend . . . her uncle had appeared because he was already dead and could come to his almost dead niece.

Susan held on to her son, wiping away his tears. "It's all right, sweetheart," she told him. "We've just got to find the way back, is all. We've got to find the way back to Uncle Lucas and Uncle Nathan. Do you know where they are?"

Her hope shattered when her son shook his head, still sniffling. "I'm scared, Mommy," he whispered and she took him into her arms, cradling him in her arms and rocking him back and forth gently.

_"Come, Josephine, in my flying machine and it's up she goes, up she goes," _Susan sang. "_Balancing like a bird on a beam, in the air she goes! There she goes! Up, up, a little bit higher! Oh, my! The moon is on fire . . ._" (AN: I know, kind of unoriginal, but I just thought since Elizabeth was born around the time that the song was written, she would teach it to her daughter. Plus, I really like that song. Don't sue me!)

As she sang, she felt her son's sobs slowly die away and then he was relaxing in her arms gently and she looked down. He was fast asleep in her arms. Susan sighed, wondering how they were going to get out of this place, when a familiar voice spoke up.

"You're really good with him."

Susan whirled around, her son in her arms, and stared at the figure that was standing there. "S—Shawn?" she asked shakily, not at all certain that it was him. After all, she'd just spent close to an hour with his past life, so it could've been Jesse, couldn't it?

"Of course it's me. Who were you expecting?" He was giving her his quirky smile, but when she didn't smile back, it vanished and he looked at her sharply. "I know that you hate me, Susan, and I don't blame you one bit for hating me."

Susan shook her head. "I don't hate you, Shawn," she told him. "I'm angry at you and frustrated and annoyed, but I certainly don't hate you." She looked down at her sleeping son. "How could I hate anyone who gave me such a beautiful little boy?"

Shawn smiled. "He takes after his mother," he said softly, walking towards her. When she didn't move away, he placed his hands on her shoulders and she looked up at him. "You know what's happening?"

"I'm losing him, aren't I?"

"Close to it. Your brothers are freaking out, by the way. But you both are too close to death, our son especially," he added, looking at the little boy in her arms. "And I'm going to have to break all kinds of rules in order to save the two of you," he added dryly.

Susan blinked and looked around at them again. "We're at the gateway between the living and the dead, right?" she asked. Shawn nodded. "It looked different before."

Shawn laughed. "Well, that's because you weren't meant to die when Keith took you to the future. Your heart only stopped for a couple of seconds."

"Oh."

"But you're pretty close to it, now, and even closer to losing our son, but if we act now, I think that I can save the two of you." His brown eyes were looking at Susan intently and she felt her heart flutter as she looked straight into them.

"What do I have to do?" she whispered. "I'll do anything, Shawn, I can't lose him!" She was crying.

The father of her child nodded. "Give him to me," he told her quietly. "And give me your hands. I have to save you first, Sue," he explained to her shocked look. "Because if you die, then he won't be born anyway. Please just trust me," he pleaded.

Susan looked down at her son and slowly allowed Shawn to scoop their son into his arms. Holding their boy with one arm, he reached out the other one and the soothing, healing light flowed through Susan, filling her up and she felt her soul returning to her body. Just before she disappeared, she heard Shawn whisper, "I'll never stop loving you."

It wasn't like before; this time it actually hurt for her soul to be reunited with her body and she coughed and gagged when they were joined. Gasping for breath, she heard Lucas and Nathan near her, trying to comfort her through her agony.

"Shawn . . ." she gasped.

"No, Sue, it's us," Lucas said and she looked up into her elder brother's blurry form. She blinked a couple of times and both of her brothers swarmed into view. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know—" Susan was cut off when she felt the soothing sensation again, this time near her stomach, and she saw the healing light near her abdomen. When it vanished, there was no sign of any blood or any damage to her unborn child.

As if to reassure her that he was still there, her son gave her a tiny, but distinctive flutter and Susan leaned back, breathing deeply and giving a silent thanks of relief.

"What happened?" Lucas was still deeply worried. "Are you okay? Is the baby—"

"He's fine," Susan whispered, seeing Gabrielle, Jesse, Lucius, and Nathaniel over her brothers' shoulders. "Let's just go home, please?"

Lucas sighed and, despite her protests, scooped her up. "Why is it that every time that we time travel, you end up getting hurt?" he wondered as Nathan cast the spell to return them to their own time. "The next time that we go out of our own time, you're staying home."

"What if we go to the future?" Susan said weakly. "We've never done that before, Luke? Maybe I only get hurt in the past."

"It's not funny," Lucas snapped, but Nathan was laughing. He fell silent at Lucas's dirty look, however, but his dark blue eyes were still twinkling. "You do know that I've got a heart condition, don't you, Sue?" he added, rolling his eyes towards his siblings.

--

Lucas glanced up as his sister came walking into the kitchen the next morning, pouring herself a cup of tea with her bathrobe tied securely around her. "I thought that you were going to stay in bed today," he said, slightly annoyed with her.

"Uh, no, you were the one who ordered me to stay in bed today," Susan reminded him. "And I was the one telling you that I am _fine_." She rolled her blue-green eyes at him as she sipped her mug.

"Yeah, well, I'm your older brother, I'm supposed to worry and you are supposed to listen to me."

"Please, Luke. That older sibling thing does not work when you're less than a year older than me. Believe me, I've given up trying to use that older sister excuse on Nate."

"He trying to use that 'older sibling excuse' again?" Nathan had entered the kitchen and immediately reached for the pot of coffee. "Don't you two know by now that I'm not going to listen to that junk and Sue certainly isn't going to listen to you, Luke," he added. "So quite being so overprotective."

"After the past day that we've had, don't even try to lecture me about being overprotective," Lucas warned just as the doorbell rang. Susan sat her mug down and went to answer it. "Hey, if that's another one of your past lives, tell them to get help somewhere else."

Susan made a face at him and went to answer the door, hearing her brothers argue in the kitchen as she left. She had them how exactly Shawn had saved them, but their exact opinions on the matter were disordered at the moment. Lucas, she knew, was far from thrilled with their Whitelighter and these events only turned things around. Nathan had kept his personal feelings about Shawn to himself for her sake, but she knew that he was with their brother on this one. She hadn't exactly been happy with her Whitelighter either, but the fact that he had saved her and their son changed things.

Opening the door, she wondered vaguely about the irony of life as she saw Shawn standing in the doorway. She smiled at him. "Using the doorway now?" she commented.

He grinned slightly. "Well, I thought it might be better than my just orbing in," he commented, glancing behind her. Susan didn't need to look to know that her brothers were standing there, glaring at him icily.

Turning around, she gave them a nasty look before she stepped outside and shut the door behind her. "So, I'm guessing that the Elders found out about your saving me," she said. It wasn't a question.

"Yeah," Shawn said as she sat down on the hammock that Lucas had put up on the porch. "Yeah, They did. And while some of Them were on our side, the same ones who voted to let us stay together, by the way," he added, giving her a knowing smile. "Most of Them were in the belief that you should've lost the baby. Even if it meant losing you, too, ending the Charmed Ones, and letting evil gain the upper hand," he added, scowling at the sky.

Susan shook her head. "And They're supposed to be the paragons of all good," she commented.

Shawn smiled slightly. "Well, when They found out what I did, They put me on trial and went through a big decision thing and finally . . ." He took a deep breath. "They made the decision to clip my wings." His brown eyes were focused on her blue-green ones as he said that.

There was a moment's silence when he said that and Susan stared at him in shock. "You mean . . . you're mortal now?"

"Yeah." Shawn was silent for a moment before he looked at her seriously. "Listen, Susan, I know that I wasn't there for you or our baby before and I know that we can't go back to the way things were, but I promise you that I will be there for us . . . all three of us," he added, placing a hand on her stomach. Susan felt the baby kick, as though he sensed his father's presence.

Susan didn't know what to say to this, had she even been capable of articulating words at the moment.

"I'll see you," Shawn said softly, touching her hair in that familiar gesture that she knew so well. Then he smiled at her, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked down the steps.

"Shawn!" Susan didn't know why she stopped him, but he stopped and turned, looking at her. "You're right, we can't go back to the way things were. Things are different now." He nodded miserably. "But . . . maybe they can be better."

He smiled. "Yeah, maybe."

"I'll be seeing you," Susan said with a small smile. He nodded and walked down the street. She didn't know where he was going, but she watched him disappear into the distance, but forever by her side.


	20. Will Forester

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty: Will Forester

Susan was in the middle of eating a rushed breakfast when Brooke entered the room, looking harassed as she walked into the kitchen, seizing the pitcher of coffee and pouring herself a cup. "Oh, I cannot wait until those two grow up a little bit. They are a handful. Next time that I decide that I want to get pregnant, remind me of this," she informed Susan.

"Yeah, well, considering that you've got a husband, who actually has a paying job and is supporting you, I'd say you're pretty lucky," Susan said sarcastically.

Brooke paused and looked over at her sister-in-law. "Are you still avoiding Shawn?" she asked. Susan didn't answer. "Look, Susan, you cannot keep avoiding him. Eventually, the two of you are going to have to talk about what you're going to do."

"Yeah, that's just the thing, I don't know what I want to do about all this," Susan retorted. "I mean . . . I went from having a forbidden relationship to having a baby with a father who put his job before us and then he sacrificed it in order to save us. This isn't the sort of thing that I can sort out in a week."

"Well, have you talk to him at all?"

"Of course I have! Right after I found out that he was mortal again," Susan added lamely when Brooke gave her a knowing look. "Look, I'm going to talk to him, but I just need some time."

"I hate to be the one to break this to you, Sue, but all the time in the world is not going to change the fact that the guy you love is actually making an effort to be there for you and your baby. He loves you, everyone can see it, and you love him. What more is there to understand?"

"He left me after he found out I was pregnant, Brooke," Susan said quietly, glancing up at her sister-in-law, her eyes hard. "That sounds an awful lot like your mother-in-law's history, doesn't it?"

Brooke stared at her, realisation dawning in her eyes. "Susan, Shawn is not Dan, okay? He's never going to be like him. Dan left Karen because he didn't want to take responsibility for his actions. Shawn left you because he wanted to protect you from the Elders. I'm a telepath, remember? And I honestly say that he thought he was doing what was right at the time."

"That doesn't excuse it, though!" Susan retorted. "And you know what? I'm sick of talking about this. I don't wanna talk about me anymore. Let's analyse you."

"Analyse what? There's nothing to analyse," Brooke said dryly. "You're the one who has the interesting life nowadays."

"If you count demons trying to kill me and my child and my child's father being turned into a mortal because he saved our lives." Susan stood up just as the doorbell rang and sat back down. "You answer that, I'm not going to."

"Susan, it might be Shawn."

"Yeah, tell him that I'm in the shower."

Brooke shook her head. "You are completely hopeless, you know that?" she demanded as the doorbell rang again.

"Will somebody please get that?" Lucas yelled from upstairs.

"Rome wasn't built in a day," Susan said simply as she remained sitting. Brooke rolled her eyes and walked to through the foyer to the door as it rang a third time. She reached for the doorknob, sensing that the person outside wasn't a demon by his thoughts, and opened it.

The visitor was a kid about eleven or twelve years old with messy brown hair that fell continuously into his face and into his brown eyes. He had the look of someone who had been through a lot in a short amount of time. Apparently, he had given up on anybody being home because he had been about to walk away when Brooke opened the door. His hand was on his worn backpack that he had slung over his shoulder in a fashion that seemed vaguely familiar to Brooke.

"Hi, can I help you?" she asked, noting that he seemed familiar to her, but couldn't put her finger on it. The last time that she'd had this feeling was when she was visited by her future son, Keith. She _really_ hoped that he wasn't another one of their kids from the future. They'd had enough problems last time from future kids visiting. First Keith, then Susan's son Chris, then her daughter Peyton.

"Um . . . yeah, actually, I'm looking for Susan Dawson-Scott," the kid said, shifting from one foot to the other. "Does she live here?"

"Yeah, she's right here," Brooke said, pushing open the door wider as Susan walked into the foyer, pulling her jacket on as she saw the kid standing in the doorway.

The kid's face paled slightly as he saw the witchlighter and he swallowed, unable to articulate words for a minute. "Uh . . . I . . . uh . . ." he stammered as Susan looked at him questionably. "Gotta go!"

Without pausing, he leaped off of the porch and down the sidewalk, out of sight. Brooke stared at him, then at Susan. "What was that about?" she wanted to know as she closed the door behind her. Susan was staring confusedly towards the door where the kid had vanished. "He was looking for you, do you know him or something?"

"Not that I know of," Susan said, frowning. "He seemed familiar, though, you know? Like I'd seen him before. What's this?" She knelt down and picked up a wallet that Brooke hadn't noticed.

Susan opened up the wallet and stared down at the student ID. "Huh, he's from Wisconsin," she remarked. "Quite away from home. Maybe he's staying with some folks here." She shook her head. "Well, I'll leave it here in case he comes looking for it, tell Luke and Nate about it. His name's William, by the way. William Forester."

"Well, I doubt that he goes by that," Brooke said cheerfully. "Probably a Will or Billy or something like that." Spotting the perturbed look that was on her sister-in-law's face, she added more seriously, "Are you _sure_ that you don't know him?"

"No, I don't," Susan said, so quietly that Brooke had to strain in order to hear her. "But for some reason, I feel like I should have."

--

Will Forester shoved his hands into his pockets, cursing silently as he walked down the street. Why did he just do that? he wondered as he kicked a pebble out of his path. Now, she just thought that he was some psychopath. It wasn't like he didn't have enough people who thought he was.

After being passed around from foster home to foster home for twelve years, Will finally got fed up with the foster homes and started looking for his real family. And he finally managed to track down someone. But every time that he got up the courage to go and find them, something happened that had stopped him.

First, the social workers had caught him sneaking out of the house he was staying at before he got transferred to another foster home. He'd met the ones he was supposed to be going with once and instantly decided that he wasn't going with them. Mr. and Mrs. Norris were both evil and vindictive, something that the social workers hadn't picked up on. But Will had a habit of sensing people for who they really were, their feelings and emotions, though it was _really_ annoying at times, and even could see the future. He saw it through pictures in his mind. Although he didn't know what it was or where these . . . powers had come from, they had started a little over a year ago, when he'd attempted to find his birth family the second time.

That time, it had been because of them that their meeting had been delayed. They were in a car accident and his birth mother had been killed. Then her daughter—his sister—left town. People said she went to find her father. Will could relate to her in that sense, but it took him a while to track her down.

And finally, at long last, he did. A little town called Tree Hill, located in North Carolina. Just as the Norris' were about to claim him and take him home with them, he'd managed to sneak out. By the time that they found him missing, he was long gone.

But seeing her for the first time, seeing that she was real and not just a figment of his imagination, longing for his real family, was too much to take. So Will did the first thing that came to mind; he got out of there.

Now, he was mentally kicking himself for that decision. He had come all this way to find her, hadn't he? And as far as he knew, she didn't know anything about him. So why couldn't he just go over there and talk to her? The girl who answered the door had seen him and so had Susan. Surely, they'd let him in if he went over there, let him explain himself. And maybe she could explain why his mom—_their_ mom—had given him up while she kept her.

At the very least, maybe she could explain why he had these powers. What they were and where they came from. Will didn't understand anything about them. All he knew is that these being kept coming after him, trying to kill him and "steal his powers," as they had claimed. It had taken all of the tricks in the book—along with some Will had invented himself—to escape.

Will had long believed that his family wasn't of the normal. When he had received these powers, he became even more confident of that notion. But what he didn't know was what exactly he was. Once upon a time, he thought that he might be an alien from outer space, but eventually that theory went out the window when he stopped believing in space aliens. But the question still remained . . . what was he?

Susan Dawson-Scott was the only one with all of the answers. He had to talk to her, not only to learn what he was, but also to . . . find answers to his past. Will wanted to know where he came from. His parents' history and who they were, how they'd met, and how they died.

With a small sigh, Will sat down on a bench in the park, running his hands through his brown hair, tossing his bag onto the seat next to him, brooding silently.

"Why is this so complicated?" he muttered, holding his head into his hand on the arm of the bench. He sighed. "But I guess I can't very well just go up to her and just say, 'Hi, I'm Will Forester, I think that your mom might have abandoned me at birth. Up for a game of horse?'" The very thought of it made him smile wryly. "She's going to think that I'm crazy."

"Well, the first sign of insanity is talking to yourself," a voice spoke up, startling Will from his thoughts.

Jumping up from the bench as though he had received an electric shock, Will whirled around to look at the man who had appeared before him. He was an older man, in his mid to late thirties, with brown hair and clean-shaven.

"It's rude to interrupt someone's thoughts, you know," Will snapped before he could stop himself. How long had the man been standing there? Normally, he would've sensed someone's approach, but he hadn't. The fact that the man could've snuck up on him so easily bothered him more than anything.

"Go to her."

"What?"

"Go to Susan." The man was smiling now. "If you want to know about this, then you're going to need to talk to her as soon as possible. Everything is about to fall into place. She and her brothers are going to need you very soon. But she will not be able to explain everything to you. At least, not entirely. You're going to need my help for that, son."

Will swallowed. "Who are you?" he whispered.

The man only smiled more broadly. "You'll find out soon enough," he replied gently. "Go to Susan. Find your sister."

Then, without so much as another word, the man disappeared in a shimmer of lights, making Will jump back even farther, staring at the spot where he had stood.

The only question left was what was he going to do?


	21. An Innocent Captured

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-one: An Innocent Captured

Lucas climbed out of the car, heading into the parking lot of the _Tree Hill Chronicle_, which he was interning for. He wasn't sure if he wanted to pursue journalism, but it at least had a decent paycheque and would pay the bills until he published his novel . . . if anybody was even willing to publish it.

"Hey, Andrea," he said, glancing towards the assistant that he passed on his way to his own desk. "What's going on?"

"Take your pick," Andrea said dryly as she glanced around the newsroom, which was crowded as always. "We've got some woman who attacked her husband for having an affair, the Ravens losing their first three games, and a bunch of weirdo murders downtown crossed with kidnappings."

Stopping at that last one, Lucas frowned slightly at Andrea. "Wait a minute, what was that last one?"

"Oh, there's about five murders that have occurred within the last three weeks," Andrea explained, glancing up at him. "All of them were killed in the exact same way, with the exact same weapon. And all of them had kids aged ten to thirteen, which disappeared. Police think that it's the same guy for all of them and is hiding the kids someplace."

"Have they got anything?"

"Only that the same thing happened about forty years ago," Andrea answered simply. "Five women murdered, kids kidnapped, and all of them vanished without a trace. Only one of them was ever found and he claims that some . . . demon took him. Something must've affected his brain while he was abducted," she added with a smirk. "Can't really imagine some monster kidnapping kids, can you?"

Lucas laughed weakly. "No," he said, trying to mask his worry. "No, can't imagine that. So what do you want me to do? Filing?"

"Yeah, and then you've got to help Ed with his story on the weirdo murders. Good luck. You know how he takes those things seriously."

With a small sigh, Lucas headed towards his own desk. "You have absolutely no idea," he muttered, wrinkling his brows in thought.

A demon that was abducting children . . . there was no doubt about it, he would definitely have to look into it later on. Making a mental note to look up the murders forty years ago on the Internet later, Lucas started filing the folders, but his thoughts never strayed from the abducted kids.

--

Susan wasn't in a good mood by the time that she got home. She'd somehow managed to get a C- on her exam, the lowest grade that she had ever received in her life, and then had gotten in a fight with her friend Angela by saying nice things about her ex in front of her new boyfriend. Not to mention having to run out of her history class and barely make it to the bathroom in time for morning sickness to hit.

All in all, it had _not_ been a good day and the last thing that she needed when she got home was for Shawn to be sitting there, waiting on the steps.

"Hey," he said, not moving as she walked up the steps. "I was waiting for you." She didn't say anything. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just not having a really good day. What are you doing here?" she wanted to know as she moved sideways around him—not such an easy feat with her increasing girth and the minimum sized porch—and went to unlock the door.

"Well . . . I was kind of hoping that we might be able to talk," Shawn said, looking awkwardly at her. He seemed to sense her annoyance and frustration. "You know, about . . . um . . . us."

"I really don't think that this is the best time," Susan said firmly as she opened the door. She suppressed a sigh of exasperation as he followed her in and shut the door behind him. "Shawn, listen, I really don't know what you expect from me. Things have changed and I don't know where we're supposed to go from here."

"Susan, I am here now, doesn't that count for anything?"

"But you weren't _before_. How am I supposed to know that you're not just going to leave again? If not for the Elders, then what about for someone else?" Susan wished that she hadn't said that.

Shawn looked wounded. "You really think that I would do something like that?" he asked her. "Just leave you and our son behind without a second thought? I'm not your father, you know."

"Well, you weren't that far behind him four months ago, were you?" Susan shot back.

"I was trying to protect you!" Shawn shouted. "Susan, you know how much you mean to me! Haven't I proved that, time and time again? Do you know how much I've sacrificed for you?"

"It's not about sacrifice, it's about trust! How am I supposed to trust you not to leave again? How can I trust myself to open myself up to you again, after you left me and broke my heart?" She shook her head, not allowing him to see the tears that were threatening to fall. "How can I trust you after that?" she asked none too quietly. "After two months of silence, of not knowing where you were or whether or not I was ever going to see you again?"

Shawn stared at her and opened his mouth just as Nathan walked downstairs, looking at the two of them. "Hey, I heard yelling, is everything okay?" he wanted to know.

"Yes," Susan said testily.

Nathan looked sceptically at her, but didn't argue with her claim. "Well, that kid that came by this morning never came back, looking for his wallet, Sue, so we're probably going to have to find him and return it to him. You know, before he leaves to go back home."

"Great, well, where are we supposed to find him?" Susan said, deliberately ignoring Shawn.

"Dunno. Maybe he left an address in here or something," Nathan suggested, reaching for the wallet that was lying on the table. The moment that he touched the wallet, his mind was pulled into a premonition.

The youngest Charmed One saw the kid that was on the identification being attacked by a demon. He was fighting with everything he was worth, but the demon conjured a fireball, throwing it at him. As the fireball made contact, the kid was flying backwards into a wall, his eyes wide and blank.

As he came out of the premonition, Nathan felt Susan's hand touch his and he looked up at his sister. "Nate, what is it?" she asked him gently. "What did you see?"

"The kid that this belongs to being attacked," Nathan said, holding up the wallet. Susan's eyes flew to it before returning to his, blue-green eyes meeting his dark blue. He didn't need to look at her to know that she was worried for the kid's safety.

"Where?" Shawn asked.

"Somewhere near the campus," Nathan answered instantly. Susan didn't need persuasion as she reached for both of their hands and immediately orbed them away.

--

Lucas slammed the door shut to his car as he headed to the library at school to look up the stuff on the murders forty years ago. He still had a couple of hours before his first class, so he might as well do something productive. As he started to head up the hill towards the library, he heard the faint sound of yelling in the distance.

Instantly, his head turned towards the sound and he took off running towards where he'd heard the yell, trying to materialise in order to get there faster, but his new power wasn't completely under control just yet. He managed to materialise just a few feet where he'd started, landing in a heap near the sidewalk.

"What are you doing?"

Glancing up, he saw his sister looking down at him in amusement, holding out a hand to help him up. When he got to his feet, he looked around at his surroundings and saw that Nathan and Shawn were there with her. He scowled at the ex-Whitelighter. "What are you doing here?"

"Never mind that," Susan interrupted as Shawn opened his mouth to retort. She gave an exasperated look at her brother and a warning look towards Shawn. He noticed with a little bit of approval that she didn't seem too thrilled to see Shawn either. "Nathan had a premonition. You remember the kid that came by this morning?"

"The one who left his wallet? Yeah."

"Apparently he's going to be attacked somewhere near here," Nathan explained. "I couldn't get a good look at the demon, but he was hit by a high level energy ball. It killed him."

"I heard a scream somewhere over there," Lucas said, pointing. "Come on, let's go check it out." He broke into a run, his brother, sister, and former Whitelighter right behind him.

It didn't take them long to find the kid and the demon. Yells soon filled the distance and as they turned into an alleyway, Susan let out an exclamation and Lucas saw that a kid give a well-aimed kick towards the demon that was attacking before scrambling out of the way.

The kid glanced up as he heard Susan's scream and his brown eyes focused on her, going wide, as the demon scowled at them. "Just who do you think you are?" he demanded. "This is none of your business, humans."

"Humans?" Nathan said sarcastically. "Oh, you know, I thought we were really starting to get famous down in the Underworld." He grinned at Susan and Lucas, who rolled his eyes.

"We're the Charmed Ones," Susan said with a smirk. The demon froze the moment that she said that, his yellow eyes going wide in horror. "So you want to end up like the other hundred or so demons who have already tried killing us? 'Cause we've got the time."

The demon didn't hesitate; seizing the kid by the neck, he conjured an athame and held it at the kid's throat. "You even so much as move and his blood will be on your hands, witches," he threatened. A soft gasp escaped from Susan and when Lucas looked at her, her face was slightly pale.

"Let him go," Shawn spoke up, stepping next to Susan. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she relaxed slightly, but her eyes were kept on the kid.

"I don't think so," the demon said with a small laugh. "But if the boy's of interest to you, then he'll be of greater interest to my master. Don't try and follow us," he threatened.

"Don't even think about it!" Susan yelled, coming out of her trance and starting forward, her hands flying out to freeze the scene, but the demon had already shimmered out, with the kid in tow.

Susan cursed as she looked around the alleyway. "Come on, let's go, we have to go after them!" she said, looking close to a breakdown.

Whoever this kid was, whatever he was, he obviously knew Susan and Susan obviously felt some unknown connection to him. She wouldn't be freaking out this badly otherwise.

"Okay, first we need to get home and get to the _Book of Shadows_, so we can find out who the demon was," Nathan pointed out. "We'll be walking straight into a trap otherwise. We don't know what we're going up against here."

"But they'll kill him!" Susan protested.

"I don't think so," Lucas said grimly. They all looked at him. "Sue, I think they want us to go straight after him without so much as a plan . . . he's the bait. And who has been sending all of these demons after us and tried to change the past in order to stop us?"

Susan, Shawn, and Nathan looked at him then at each other. "The Source," they said simultaneously.


	22. A Mother Lost

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-two: A Mother Lost

Susan was standing next to Nathan as he flipped through the pages in the Book, scanning each demon as they tried to ID the demon who'd attacked at the campus. Shawn was pacing back and forth across the attic, looking extremely worried and helpless, while Lucas was typing away on his computer, trying to get some information about the murders that had taken place forty years ago.

"There he is!" she said, stopping her brother as he was about to keep going. "That's the demon who attacked."

Nathan nodded, his expression grim as he stared down at the page that she had indicated. "Oh, the news just keeps getting better and better," he complained. "He's a member of the Slayer clan, capital S, and they're assassins for the Source. Apparently, they've been doing his bidding for centuries, but they don't get out very much. Prefer to leave the killings for lower level demons. You know, the ones that can be easily replaced," he added with a half-hearted smile.

"Does the Book say how to vanquish them?" Lucas asked without looking up from his laptop. Shawn stopped pacing to look over at the younger two Charmed Ones.

"Yeah, there's a vanquishing potion," Susan answered, scanning the recipe. "Okay, we've got most of the ingredients here, but the only one we're missing is thyme. We went out last week. Think your mom might have some, Luke?" she asked, glancing over at the eldest. "I could orb over there and borrow some from her. A lot faster than going to the store and standing in line to get it."

"She should," Lucas answered with a sigh, standing up. "But I'll go get it. I can just materialise over there," he explained to Shawn, who frowned slightly. "New power."

"Yeah, why does _he_ get a new power?" Nathan pouted. "I'm the one who needs an active power the most around here." Susan rolled her eyes and swatted her younger brother on the back of the head.

"Stop whining, little brother," she told him before turning to Lucas. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Luke? You don't have complete control over your materialising yet."

"Well, practice makes perfect," Lucas pointed out. "Besides, it's not the getting to the right place that I have a problem with. It's just the landing. And as I recall, sometimes you didn't land all too well either when you started orbing all over the place," he added with a smile.

Susan stuck her tongue out at him while Shawn hid a small smile. "All right, while you're gone, we'll work on the potion and try and have as much of it done as we can before you get here," she said. "Just call if you need anything."

Lucas smiled. "You worry too much, you know that, little sister? I'm supposed to worry about _you_, not the other way around."

"Yeah, well, we're not normal and we never will be, so just get used to it," Susan replied. The eldest Charmed One smirked and materialised out. She sighed, picking up a few of the ingredients.

"You all right, Sue?" Nathan asked, glancing over at his sister. Her face was tranquil, but he could sense her worry and uneasiness under her passive expression. Not to mention, he knew her well enough to know when she was worried.

"Me? I'm fine, why?" She looked over at him.

"No, you're not. You're worried about that kid. What is his name again? Will?" Nathan placed his hands on the Book as she sighed.

"I just don't understand why the demons would take him. Unless he's a witch, he wouldn't be a threat to them, would he? It doesn't make any sense. And if he _is_ a witch, then why was he over here? Why was he looking for me?"

"Dunno," Nathan shrugged. He saw her expression and sighed. "Sue, are you _absolutely_ sure that you've never met him before?"

"I'm sure," Susan said in a tone that wasn't to be argued with. She glared at the two men when they looked disbelieving. "I know I would at least know if I'd seen him before, but I haven't. It's like . . . I don't know, it's like I _should_ have known him, I guess."

Before Nathan could ask what that meant, she suddenly jumped and let out a startled gasp, as though she had heard something that they hadn't. "What?" he asked, slightly annoyed when he saw that there wasn't anybody else in the room with them. "If you're going to yell like that, at least do it when there's a demon in the—"

"Lucas is calling," she explained, looking afraid. "It's more like he's screaming. And he sounds afraid."

"You go," Shawn instructed. "We'll stay here and work on the potion." She nodded and orbed out.

Nathan turned towards the ex-Whitelighter, making a face at him. "You only did that to get in her good books," he commented. Shawn made a weak smile and noncommittal shrug of his shoulders as they turned to make the vanquishing potion.

--

The moment that Susan orbed into Karen's house, she looked around, not seeing her brother anywhere, nor her cousin, nor her aunt, for lack of a better word for Karen. "Lucas?" she called tentatively, stepping into the living room, but Lucas wasn't there.

"Luke?" she called again, louder this time when he didn't answer. She walked back into the kitchen and entered his old bedroom, which was now Janie's. The scene that met her eyes was _not_ the one that she had been expecting and she let out an audible gasp.

Her brother was sitting on the floor next to his mother, who was lying on the ground, her eyes vacant and blank as she stared up at her son. Lucas was sobbing as he held her, rocking back and forth on the ground.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, more for her son's sake than her own, Susan walked over to her brother and knelt down beside him. "Luke?" she whispered, placing one hand on his shoulder and the other on his chin, lifting it up so he was looking at her. "Luke, what happened?" She tried to avoid looking at Karen.

"The Slayer demons," Lucas whimpered, sniffling. "They were here, they attacked. Mom heard the noise and came running for Janie, but they already had her. She . . . she's gone . . . they took her . . . then they threw an energy ball at her. I tried to throw it out of the way, but one of them knocked me to the ground. By the time that I got up . . ." He shook his head, unable to finish his sentence. His light blue eyes flew back to his mother and he shook uncontrollably. "I couldn't wake her up," he whispered. "She wouldn't wake up, Sue. I can't wake her."

Susan nodded slowly, her eyes turning to Karen. She could easily see where the energy ball had hit. "Luke, the Slayer demons . . . they took Janie?" she asked, making sure that she'd heard her brother right. He nodded miserably. "Okay . . . well, we need to get back to Nathan and find the demons."

"No." Lucas shook his head. "No, I'm not leaving her. I can't." He stared down at his mother's dead body and Susan sighed.

"Luke, we can't vanquish the demons, not without the Power of Three," she told him gently. It was the last thing she wanted to tell him right now, but Susan knew that without the power of the Charmed Ones, then they were at a definite disadvantage. "And we've got to rescue those kids _and_ Janie. What about your sister? She needs you right now. Your family needs you," she added as Lucas looked up at her. His light blue eyes were shining with anguish. "Come on, big brother, pull yourself together. Unless we can find these demons and vanquish them, there's going to be a lot more kids who are going to be left motherless. And we can't lose what little we have left of Keith and your mom."

Lucas stared at her, seeming younger than his nineteen years. But he didn't argue with her. "Come on," she said gently, helping him to his feet. "Let's get the thyme and finish the potion."

With a firm hand on his arm, Susan led Lucas away from the horrific scene towards the kitchen. Susan knew that they shouldn't just leave Karen there, but she didn't know what else to do.

"I'm sorry, Susan," he said quietly. Susan glanced up at him, surprised by his words and confused. What on earth did he have to be sorry for? "I never really understood what it was like to have one parent and then lose them. My entire life, I had Mom and Keith. Even when I lost Keith, I still had Mom and you guys. But you . . . you only had Elizabeth and when she died . . ." He shook his head. "I never understood it until now."

Susan sighed, wrapping her arms around her brother. "I'm sorry, too, Luke," she whispered. "It's not right. Both you and Janie didn't deserve to lose your parents. And it's never going to be okay that she's gone, but I promise that it will get better. Now let's go save our cousin, okay?" She smiled at him and orbed them both out, heading towards the manor.

Nathan and Shawn both looked around at them as Susan orbed back in, Lucas in tow. The youngest Charmed One let out an exclamation when he saw the state that their brother was in. "Lucas! What happened?" he asked as he helped Susan guide Lucas into a chair. "What happened?" he added more urgently.

"Karen's dead," Susan said quietly, sitting down next to Lucas. Her older brother began rocking back and forth at her words. "The Slayer demons killed her."

Shawn cursed and Susan looked around at him, slightly startled. So did Lucas and Nathan. None of them had ever heard the former Whitelighter curse.

"Are Whitelighters even _allowed_ to swear?" Nathan wanted to know, hiding a small smile.

"No, but former ones are," Shawn said with a shrug. "Especially in situations like this," he muttered.

"And it gets a whole lot worse," Susan added. Both her brother and former Whitelighter looked at her. "They took Janie. She's with those demons now." Silence fell over the room and Nathan looked like he had been punched in the stomach. All of them were thinking the exact same thing: they were _this_ close to losing the one person that meant so much to them . . . that was the one thing that they had left of their beloved uncle . . .

"Well, I suppose that's it, then," Nathan said softly, taking the thyme that Susan was holding in her hands. She looked at him as he walked over to the pot and tossed the ingredient in.

Automatically, the potion gave off a blast, signifying that it was finished. Susan sighed and poured some of the potion into vials.

"Stay with the kids," she told Shawn. He didn't look happy about this prospect, but didn't argue. She walked over to her older brother. "Luke, are you okay to go through with this?"

Lucas nodded, standing up. He still looked pale and haunted by what had happened back at the Roe house, but he stood up. She could feel his fingers shaking as she took his hand and Nathan took her other one.

Closing her eyes, she orbed them all out, heading for the Underworld.


	23. In the Slayers' Lair

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-three: In the Slayers' Lair

"You sure that this is the right spot?" Nathan asked his sister for the thousandth time since they had orbed to the Underworld. He looked sceptical as Susan looked around at him, looking slightly annoyed at his question. But, considering that he'd only asked that question about a thousand times before, she was probably within her rights to be.

"Of course I'm sure," she said. Yep, definitely annoyed. It showed in her voice. "Look, I don't ask how your premonitions work, do I? So don't ask me how my Whitelighter instincts work, Nate. All I know is that I can . . . sense our cousin somewhere close. And somebody else," she added in an undertone. It probably wasn't meant for Nathan's ears, but he heard it anyway.

"Are you talking about that Will kid?" he wanted to know. Considering the look that she threw him, he guessed he probably should've kept his mouth shut. But it was a little too late for that now. "Sue, come on, what's with this kid? How do you know him?"

"I don't," she insisted. "Honestly, I think that I would remember him. It's more like . . . a memory."

"A memory?" Nathan echoed, a slightly amused smile crossing his face. "What kind of a memory?"

"One I can't remember," Susan responded as she walked further into the cave, Lucas and Nathan trailing behind her.

Nathan rolled his eyes after his sister, but glanced at his brother carefully. Since they had arrived down here, the eldest Charmed One had been relatively quiet, hardly even speaking a word. He was barely even paying attention to what was going on around him, too absorbed in his own thoughts.

Which probably wasn't such a good thing, considering that that they were hunting down the Source of All Evil's assassins.

"You all right, big brother?" Nathan asked, hoping to bring his brother out of his musings. "Luke?" he added when Lucas didn't respond. Still, the eldest Charmed One remained quiet and staring ahead of him.

Placing a hand on his brother's shoulder, Nathan was rewarded with the reaction of Lucas whirling around and sending him flying backwards. Susan turned back, eyes like daggers, to see no danger. At least demon-wise.

"What are you two doing?" she hissed. "Do you want the entire Underworld to know we're here? Great," she added, glancing over her shoulder. Nathan strained his ears and heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

Susan grabbed both of them and hauled them into a safe hiding place as a couple demons came running into the cavern that they were in. She gave them a 'be quiet' look as she peered out at the demons.

"Did you hear something?" one of them asked, glancing towards his fellow demon.

"Must've been an avalanche or something," his companion replied, heading back into the cavern up ahead. "Come on, let's get back to our post. If we let those kids escape, then we'll have to answer to _him_. Forgive me if I don't want to explain how we let that happen." His friend shook his head before joining him.

Once the demons had disappeared, Susan let out a deep sigh and turned back towards them, looking slightly annoyed at the pair of them. "Okay, now you want to explain to me what that was all about, gentlemen?" she demanded. "Because you two just almost served us up as demon bait."

"Sorry," Lucas mumbled. He was sitting on the floor, looking heavily distressed. "I'm sorry, Nate. You just startled me, is all."

"No worries," Nathan said, trying not to rub the back of his head where he'd hit it on that rock. "I was just trying to get your attention. No harm done." Lucas nodded, though didn't look entirely reassured. "Luke, are you sure that you're okay to go through with this?"

"Do I have a choice?" Lucas responded, glancing up at the pair of them. Nathan and Susan glanced at each other and Susan sat down next to their brother, placing a gentle hand onto his shoulder.

"Luke, of course you have a choice," Susan said reassuringly. "Just say the word and I'll orb you back home right now. Nate and I will take care of the demons."

"Okay." Lucas didn't look like he believed her, though. Frankly, neither did Nathan.

"But we do need the Power of Three for the spell and there's a pretty good chance that they won't freeze for long, since they are Upper Level demons. So even if Nathan and I _did_ go up alone—"

"All right, all right, I get it," Lucas said quickly. He closed his eyes and sighed, rubbing his forehead gently.

Susan hugged him tightly and he laid his head onto their sister's shoulders, carefully minding her increasing girth. She stroked his hair gently and ever so slightly, Nathan sensed his brother's fear start to ebb away and although he was still shaking, he finally stood up, helping Susan to her feet. "We can't just walk away from this, Luke," she told him softly. "We've got to get Janie back."

Lucas stared at her and nodded. "You're right," he said, letting out a deep sigh. He closed his eyes and seemed to be trying his inner calm. After a minute, he released a long breath and opened his eyes again. "Let's go."

All three siblings looked at each other before they walked away from their hiding place, heading towards the demon's lair. "How do they even stop themselves from getting lost down here?" Nathan wondered quietly. "It all looks the same to me."

"Of course it all looks the same, it's the Underworld," Susan muttered. "How many looks can they come up with?"

Lucas actually chuckled and it almost reached his eyes, though not quite. Susan smiled and patted him on the back. "That's it," she said approvingly. "Sometimes the best medicine is laughter. Come on, let's get this over with."

Before either Nathan or Lucas could stop her, she walked forward and said to the two demons guarding the cavern. "Hi, how's it going?"

They both whirled around, only to be frozen in mid-stance as Susan flicked her wrists. Nathan pulled out a potion and threw it towards the demons, making them explode.

"Come on, someone will have heard that," Susan said as she hurried into the cave. "Where do you they're hiding the kids?"

Nathan frowned slightly and walked over to the scorch mark on the floor where the demons had been standing, placing his fingertips on it. The slight impact sent him into a premonition. In his mind's eye, he a demon walking through the cave that they were in now, pushing a rock forward slightly and a secret chamber emerged. As he went down, he saw the children taken being held behind bars.

As he came out of the premonition, Nathan glanced up at them. "I think I know," he said, glancing around. Immediately, he saw the rock in his premonition that had activated the sequence.

Walking forward, Nathan pushed the rock forward and the wall in front of them creaked open. Susan let out an exclamation and Lucas muttered a swearword.

"Is that . . .?"

"Down there," Nathan said grimly as they walked through the secret entrance. He bit his lips as he looked around them, hearing the sound of kids crying and talking.

"Oh, my god!" Lucas exclaimed as they found the kids. Nathan froze, his eyes going wide as he saw the kids looking more dirty and grimier than he could've ever imagined. All of them looked around at the newcomers and one of them was holding his cousin, he saw. A kid with brown hair and brown eyes. The same kid from the alley. Will Forester.

Susan had gone white, but she hurried forward towards the barred cell. "Is everybody okay?" she asked. All of them nodded, but Will was staring at Susan as though he'd seen a ghost. "Okay, Lucas, do you think you can get this thing open?"

"I don't think that's going to be necessary, Miss Scott," a slithering voice said. Nathan whirled around, along with his brother and sister. All three of them came face-to-face with the demon that they had come across before. The one that they had met earlier that same day, the one who had kidnapped that Will kid from that morning. The Slayer demons.

--

Will had been surprised when he found that the demons had kidnapped an infant and brought her down here, but that surprise was next to nothing when he heard voices coming down the chamber and they manifested into his sister and her half-brothers. How they'd gotten here, he had no idea, but he knew that they could've found out about him. After all, they were probably tracking the demon.

"Is everybody okay?" Susan asked, peering through the bars at them. When everybody nodded, she seemed satisfied and turned to her blond brother. "Lucas, do you think you can get this thing open?"

_Why don't you just say a spell and unlock it?_ Will thought vaguely, standing up and hoisting the baby higher on his hip. After all, they were on the outside and magic could be let in, just not out.

But he didn't get a chance to say that nor did her brother Lucas have the chance to try and unlock the door, because at that same moment, a voice said, "I don't think that's going to be necessary, Miss Scott."

Gulping as he glanced at the Slayer demon who appeared, Will instinctively feared for his sister—even more since he had caught sight of the size of her stomach that he hadn't noticed that morning. She was pregnant. Five months or so, by the look of her.

"You know, you witches are so easy to manipulate," the Slayer demon remarked, stepping forward. Lucas instantly moved in front of his sister, shielding her from the danger. "You always go right into danger to save an Innocent, even if your life is threatened. After a couple thousand years, you would think that you would've learned your lesson by now."

"Funny, I would've thought that demons would stop attacking Innocents by now," Susan threw at him. "Hasn't it occurred to you by now that you're on the losing side? Because good always triumphs over evil, in the end."

The Slayer demon smirked. "That didn't work for your uncle, now did it, witch? I must say that I'll be glad to get rid of his line for good now. After all, we've got both of his children here."

Will frowned slightly as Susan's eyes narrowed. "_Both_ of his children?" she echoed. "What do you mean, both of his children?"

"Yeah, our uncle only had one child," her other brother said, stepping forward.

The smile that the Slayer demon was sporting only widened slightly. "You don't know, do you?" he said softly. "That surprises me. After all, our master was sure that you would come running after he kidnapped your cousin here." He inclined his head towards Will, who blinked in confusion. Susan's head whipped around to stare at him before looking back at the demon. "But after you didn't, he had to take more drastic measures. I must say, Lucas, you're not looking well at all. Missing your mommy?"

Lucas looked like he was about to charge forward and tackle the demon, but Susan and their brother grabbed his arms, holding him back. "Susan, Nathan, get off me!" he snapped, struggling to free himself from them. "Get off of me, you guys!"

"Yeah, well, anger is going to achieve nothing here," Susan hissed at him. "What do you want, to get vanquished? Was that your plan in luring us here?" She glared at him, still keeping a firm hold on her brother as he struggled to free himself. "I wouldn't think that the Source's own personal assassins would want themselves to be killed."

"You won't be killing us," the Slayer demon replied simply. "At least not all of us."

"Oh, no?" Susan used her free hand to pull a piece of paper out of her pocket and together the three siblings started to chant:

"_We call upon the Power of Three,_

_force of good, enemy to thee._

_Slayer demons, heart of cold,_

_let your vanquish now unfold."_

It took the space of about three seconds for the demon in front of them explode in a million pieces and the door to the cage sprung free. Will let out a sigh as he exited the cell with the other kids and slowly made his way over to his sister.

"Here," he said uncomfortably, handing the baby over to her. "She's your cousin, isn't she?"

"Yeah," Susan answered, staring at him. "Her name's Janie and she's Lucas's half-sister."

She paused for a moment, then was about to speak, no doubt to ask him about the demon's claim, but at that moment, Will heard someone shimmer in behind him and grabbed hold of him.

"He was all we really were interested in, witch," the demon hissed as he shimmered away with Will in tow.


	24. Susan's Brother

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-four: Susan's Brother

"Thanks for coming over so fast, Jake," Susan said as she opened the door to find Jake Jaquelski standing there. "The kids are in the living room with Haley and Brooke."

"So how exactly did you guys find them, anyway?" Jake asked them as he walked through the foyer with the siblings. "Or do I even want to know?" he added dryly, obviously remembering his first encounter with demons, not to mention finding out how the love of his life had died.

"Uh . . . basically the demons were kidnapping kids who were the children of witches," Nathan explained.

"So all of those women _were_ actually witches?"

"Yeah." Susan nodded. "The demons were working for this really bad guy known as the Source."

"The Source? The Source of what, exactly?" Jake looked worried as Susan, Lucas, and Nathan glanced at each other.

"Of all Evil," Lucas said after a long moment. He looked at Jake. "So, have the police found out what happened to my mom yet?"

Jake nodded, looking miserable. "Yeah, but she's been classified with all the others, just one of those freaky, unsolved cases. Although, I'm starting to think that a lot of those aren't unsolved at all. Just solved by somebody outside the law enforcement."

"Well, not all of them," Susan said with a dry smile. "Just a lot of them." She paused for a moment. "So if we have got all of this covered, then I am going up to the attic." She was just about to head towards the staircase when Nathan suddenly stopped her.

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" he asked her. Susan turned back around, a fierce look on her face.

"Where do you think I'm going? I'm going to try and make some sense of all of this," she snapped. Lucas and Nathan looked at each other.

"Is this about our alleged cousin?" Lucas said finally, turning towards his sister again. "How do we even know that the Slayer demon was telling the truth about this? Besides, this is Keith that we're talking about, Sue. He wouldn't abandon a child like Dan did to us."

"I know that, Luke, which is why I have to get some answers. And to do that, I'm going directly to the source." She climbed up the stairs, disappearing from view.

Lucas looked towards Jake. "Uh . . . sorry, Jake, but we should probably go and . . ."

Jake waved him away. "It's okay. I don't pretend for a minute that I understand all of this. Go help your sister."

"Thanks." Lucas hurried after Susan, followed closely by Nathan as they hurried up the stairs, into the attic to find their sister flipping through the _Book of Shadows_.

"Sue, what are you looking for?" Nathan wanted to know when she didn't even acknowledge their presence. "And what did you mean by 'going directly to the source'?"

"What do you think I mean? I'm going to summon Uncle Keith down here and find out exactly what those demons meant by that," Susan said as she finally settled on a page. "Okay, gonna need some candles." She walked away from the Book over to the dresser and pulled some tall, thick blue candles out of it and began setting them in holsters on the floor.

"All right, Susan, do you really think that this is a good idea?" Lucas wanted to know, looking helplessly at her sister.

"_Yes_," Susan said tensely. She glared at the pair of them, placing both hands on her hips. Nathan backed up a little bit. She was really quite intimidating looking. And a bit scary. "Don't you two want to find out what the demons meant?"

"It's not going to matter, Sue," Lucas said reasonably. "Whether or not the kid is our cousin doesn't matter; he's still an Innocent and he still needs saving." Susan threw him an incredulous look and he held up his hands. "Okay, fine, I want to know. But how do you know They're going to let you summon him?"

"Well, because if They don't, then I'm going to orb up there and enjoy kicking their high and mightinesses down." Nathan winced slightly at her words, believing every word as she returned to the Book.

"_Hear these words, __hear my cry._

_Spirit from the other side._

_Come to me, I summon thee._

_Cross now the Great Divide."_

(AN: This spell was taken from Charmed, multiple episodes.)

The flames that had been ignited flared and a brilliant, white light shimmered through the circle of candles, revealing their uncle, who looked frankly bewildered to see himself standing in the attic with his niece and nephew present.

"Susan, what are you calling me for? Luke, Nate? What on earth is going on?" he asked, looking at the siblings.

"Uncle Keith," Susan said through gritted teeth. "Why do the Slayer demons think that some kid named Will Forester is your firstborn child?"

For the first time in his life, Lucas saw his uncle tense with nervousness and alarm. His brown eyes contracted with sudden fear. "How do you know about that?" he demanded.

"Because he's currently being held hostage by the Slayer demons and maybe even the Source," Susan replied. Keith looked alarmed on that front. "Keith, who is this kid? And is he really your child?"

Their uncle turned away for a moment, rubbing his hand over his face. When he turned back to them, his face was filled with helplessness. "Sue, it's not that I don't want to tell you," he said softly. "It's that I can't."

"Can't?" Nathan repeated.

"I'm sworn to secrecy," Keith explained. This seemed to soften Susan's wrath slightly and she took a deep breath, calming herself slightly.

"Okay," she said slowly. "But sworn to silence by who? Or whom, if the case may be?"

"By me," a familiar voice said and the attic was filled with orbs, materialising into Elizabeth. Her blue-green eyes, so much like her daughter's, were solemn and grave. "By me, Susan."

"Mom?" Susan said, looking incredulous. "What do you mean, sworn by you? What's going on?" She looked confused, helpless, and angry. Although Lucas had to admit, he was probably prone to all of those emotions as well. He didn't understand anything that was going on either.

Keith and Elizabeth glanced at each other and Elizabeth sighed, starting to pace back and forth. "When you were about six years old, I brought you to Tree Hill, to visit Keith. I already knew by then that you three would become the Charmed Ones, eventually. Partly because of this, I wanted you to learn about your brothers and your father's family."

"She brought you to the auto body shop," Keith explained. "Luke was there while Karen was at the café. The two of you had the best time together, playing in the park when Elizabeth and I took you. And Karen was thrilled that Lucas had made a friend, even if that friend was his half-sister."

"When Dan found out we were in town—and that Susan was his daughter, he was enraged. Furious. But more importantly, he wanted revenge against me and Keith. Me for keeping his daughter a secret from him and for Keith because he was well on his way to being the father of his son."

Susan held up a hand to stop her mother's explanation. "Wait a minute, when I met Dan, he didn't seem to know anything about having a daughter."

Elizabeth smiled sadly. "You're right; he didn't. I still had some Whitelighter dust with me. Enough to erase Dan, Keith, Karen, and Lucas's memories. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to erase yours. I had to hope that your memories would fade with time away from Tree Hill. After all, you _were_ only six. Please, let me explain before you condemn me, Susan." Her voice was pleading. Susan stared at her, but shrugged.

With a small sigh, Elizabeth began pacing again. "When your father found out, he was furious and he wanted revenge," she said, picking up where she had left off. "By then, he was already deep in the demonic ways and had picked up a few tricks down there."

"He cast a very powerful spell upon the two of us," Keith said, glancing at Elizabeth. "Almost too powerful. If it had held any more power, then it would've destroyed the two of us."

"What kind of a spell?" Susan asked cautiously.

"To make me think that Elizabeth was Karen," Keith said gently. "And to make Elizabeth think that I was the man she once thought that she would marry. And it acted upon our desires and forced us to do the thing that we wanted to do with the one we loved."

Lucas froze when he heard that, slowly shaking his head disbelieving. "Wait a minute," he said, his voice shaking. "Are you saying that this Will kid, who is apparently our cousin, is also Susan's . . . brother?"

"Her baby brother," Elizabeth agreed softly as Susan stared at her mother and uncle. Nathan remained perfectly still, his expression shocked and confused. "Well, baby half-brother," she added.

"And also Janie's brother," Keith explained. "By my half, which also makes him a witch."

"I wanted to keep the baby, obviously," Elizabeth explained. "But when Dan found out about Keith's son, he wanted to kill him. I'm not exactly sure why, but he seemed to think that our son would be powerful in his own right and would challenge his authority. So I did the only thing that I could think of and that was erase their memories. Even Keith's."

"The spell broke when I died," Keith explained quietly. "That was why I didn't know anything about you when I met you, Sue. My memories of you had been erased and Luke's, too. As far as I knew, Dan only had Lucas and Nathan. But I've been trying to keep an eye on him since I died, to help him find his way to you three. He needed to know."

"I had Keith bind his powers when he was born, before I erased his memories," Elizabeth explained. "The moment that Keith's death occurred, your brother's powers were awakened. And he was left defenceless to demons and evil and danger."

"What powers does he have?" Nathan asked curiously, speaking for the first time since Keith and Elizabeth had arrived.

"The Warren power of premonitions," Elizabeth answered with a small smile. "And curiously enough, the power of empathy. I'm not quite sure how that worked out. Susan?" she said softly. "Dearest, please say something."

Lucas glanced at his sister and saw that she was staring at her mother with a mixture of fury, anger, and loathing. But she didn't say anything. All she did was walk out of the room. Seconds later, her bedroom door slam shut.

"That went well," Keith murmured. "About the best that I think you can hope for, Lizzie."

"I can't believe this," Lucas muttered. "So this kid is actually Janie and Susan's brother? And our cousin?" Both adults nodded and he sighed. "This has been such a long day."

Keith smiled slightly. "Go on, Luke," he said gently. "Go help your sister through this. After all, you boys know what it's like to have a sibling show up unexpectedly out of the blue."

Lucas and Nathan both smiled slightly and headed out of the attic, heading for their sister's room. Elizabeth sighed as she looked towards Keith, her blue-green eyes alarmed. "Keith, what if . . ." she began, but the elder Scott brother shook his head.

"Don't worry, Lizzie," he said simply. "Susan won't turn her back on him. Even if she fights it at first, she'll let him in. That girl has a bigger heart than all of Tree Hill."

Elizabeth smiled slightly, thinking of her little girl. "I hope so," she said. "But I don't think she's going to forgive me anytime soon. Will you keep an eye on her for me?"

"Don't I always?"


	25. He's Your Brother

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-five: "He's your Brother"

Lucas pushed open the door to his sister's room cautiously, not sure what to expect. "Sue?" he asked gently, spotting her at once sitting on the window seat. She didn't answer; her back was to him and she was staring out into Tree Hill, hugging a pillow to her chest.

"Jeez, she really is your sister, Luke," Nathan mumbled once he caught a good look at her.

"I don't brood _nearly_ as much as he does, Nathan," Susan said crossly as Lucas made a face at their brother. Lucas smiled slightly and walked over to Susan and sat down beside her, wrapping an arm around her. Nathan joined them, sitting on Susan's other side.

"Come on, Susie-girl," Lucas said with a small smile, using Keith's nickname for her. She didn't even smile as she usually did at the pet name, only stared gloomily out of the window. "Talk to us, Sue."

Still, she didn't say anything, just continued to look out the window. But knowing his sister, Lucas guessed that she was about two seconds away from an explosion.

"How could she do this?" Susan burst out unexpectedly. Nathan bit his lip and looked at Lucas, who shook his head once. "How could she just . . . give up a child like that? I don't care what she said; it's not right and it's not fair. If she could have enough power left to wipe any memory of _me_ from Dan and Keith and everybody else, then how come she didn't have enough to keep Will from Dan?" She was crying by now. "I know she could have. It shouldn't be like. She shouldn't have chosen me over Will." Susan shook her head. "You know, all these years I thought that I'd gotten one of the better deals. Granted, I would've loved to grow up with you guys, but at least I didn't have to deal with Dan. I guess you don't know how close you come."

"Elizabeth isn't Dan, Sue," Nathan pointed out. "Okay, so she abandoned a kid, but that doesn't mean she didn't care about him. Or doesn't. About either of you," he added. Susan shot him a murderous look.

"Really? Because if she cares so much about me, then she would have told me about this years ago."

"It sounded like she didn't have much of a choice," Lucas pointed out quietly. Susan gave him the deathly, furious gaze that he had coined 'the Dawson death glare.'

"I'm her _daughter_, Lucas Eugene Scott," she snapped angrily. "She could've found some way to tell _me_." She pulled out of Lucas's embrace and stood up, walking across the room. "Where's Janie, anyway?" she asked unexpectedly.

"Down with Haley," Lucas said quietly. "Hopefully, Jake's got the other kids back at the police station and they can find some relatives to take care of them." He paused. "Sue, look—"

"Don't, Luke." Susan whirled around to glare at him. "I'm not in the mood right now."

"I know you're not." Lucas stood up and walked over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. Slowly and reluctantly, Susan glanced up at him, tears of anger and despair in her blue-green eyes. "But Sue, we've got to go and rescue Will. He needs our help; he's just a kid, Susan, we've got to help him. He can't very well vanquish the rest of the Slayer demons without us. You remember what you said to me? We can't just walk away from this. We're the Charmed Ones. We've got to help."

"Why?" Susan asked softly. "Luke, I'm not saying that I won't, but I need to know why. Why should I go and help this kid?" His sister was looking at him with some kind of desperation, wanting an answer that was so escaping her.

Lucas smiled slightly. "Because he's your brother," he said gently, almost feeling like it was an echo of the past.

Which, in some strange and twisted way, it was.

Susan stared at him, her mouth slipping from its stubborn frown. She sighed, running her fingers through her dark hair as she looked from Lucas to Nathan and back again.

"This—family—is—messed—up," she said, pausing between each of the words forcibly. She sighed, looking exasperated. "Let's go get this over with."

"We got her!" Nathan said, slapping palms with his brother. "We can always get her to do what we want."

Rolling her eyes, Susan walked over to the door and opened it. "Brothers," she commented coolly. "Why did I have to have brothers?"

"'Cause our lunatic father was tactful enough to have sons," Nathan quipped. Susan shook her head.

"First, we're going to vanquish the demon," she said calmly. "Then I'm going to use a spell to turn your hair pink—" she pointed at Nathan "—and yours purple." She pointed to Lucas. "For a week with no reversal."

Without another word, she walked out of the room and the two brothers stared after their sister. Nathan slowly turned to Lucas, his mouth hanging open slightly. "Is she serious?" he wanted to know, dark blue eyes wide with horror. "I'll never live this down."

"Neither one of us will," Lucas said weakly. "And I think yeah. I think she's completely and totally serious."

--

Susan couldn't stop the angry thoughts crossing across her mind as she walked up to the attic. Thankfully, both her mother and uncle had vanished, apparently taking heed that she was in no mood to talk to either one of them.

Okay, so maybe she was being a little unfair to her uncle. After all, he hadn't exactly known about his son. He had been kept in the dark as much as her and her brothers were. Susan walked over to the Book and opened it up to the page on the Slayer demons.

The spell that they'd used before was still there and the vanquishing potion, which could only be used on the Slayer King, whom they hadn't exactly come across yet. But according to the Book, it was one of the most powerful demons in the Underworld, second only to the Source.

Of course, the only upside to that was that if they vanquished the Slayer King, then they would vanquish his entire clan. Which meant that they could get Will out of there.

Her thoughts drifted to her . . . well, her brother for a moment. She couldn't believe that she hadn't seen it before. Maybe not about her mother and Keith, but she should've guessed that he was Keith's kid. He looked a lot like him, now that she thought about it.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Susan muttered, running her hands through her dark hair as she headed over to the cauldron to start making the potion again. The original one had smashed sometime during the escape.

"First sign of insanity is talking to yourself," a familiar voice said. Susan glanced towards the doorway and saw Shawn standing in the doorway, holding Wyatt. "The twins are already down for the night."

"Thanks for keeping an eye on them."

"No problem," Shawn said with a small smile. "Besides, it's not like I have a lot to do. There's not exactly a fallen Whitelighters group I can go and join or something."

Despite herself, Susan let out a small giggle, making Shawn grin. "If you are trying to get back on my good side," she began and saw the twinkle in his brown eyes. She sighed, giving in. "You've passed with flying colours."

Shawn grinned wider and walked over to her. Susan shook her head, taking her nephew from him and hoisting him onto her hip. "Come here, big boy," she crooned as the little boy giggled and hugged his aunt tightly. She stroked his curls, which had started to turn blond, glancing at Shawn. "So did Jake get all of the kids to the station?"

"Yep. He also said that there was something going on up here. Some kind of family problem?"

Susan rolled her eyes. "You know that kid that the demons kidnapped earlier? Or I guess yesterday?" she added, glancing down at her watch. It was already after one. No wonder Wyatt was falling asleep on her; it was way past his bedtime.

"That Will Forester kid?" Shawn questioned. She nodded. "Yeah, I remember. What's up with him? Didn't you guys rescue him with all of the others?" He looked slightly confused and wary about where their conversation was heading.

"Yeah, we tried, but the demons shimmered away with him before we could even so much as throw the potion or vanquish another one." Susan shook her head. "Anyway, it turns out that they want him because he's Uncle Keith's child."

If it were possible for Shawn's eyes to get any wider, Susan would've been surprised. They were wider than saucers. "You're kidding me," he said incredulously. "This kid is your cousin?"

Susan nodded tiredly. "And that's not all," she added quietly, walking over to the couch and sitting down on the couch. Shawn joined her. "Apparently he is also my brother." She glanced up at him.

The look on his face was almost comical. If the situation weren't so serious, then she would've found it hilarious.

"You're kidding me."

"Please," Susan requested. "Stop saying that." She shook her head and stood up again. "I should go put this little boy down."

As she headed downstairs and into the nursery, Susan glanced over at the twins and saw them fast asleep. Gently, she guided Wyatt down into his crib and kissed her nephew tenderly on the forehead. Moving towards the twins, she kissed them both goodnight before heading out of the room, met immediately by Shawn.

"So what are you guys going to do?"

"Well, the only thing that would be logical would be to go after the Slayer demons again," Nathan said, appearing from her room, followed by Lucas. She glanced at them. They both seemed highly wary of her, obviously apprehensive about her threat to change their hair colour.

"No, we are not going after the Slayer demons, we are going after the Slayer King," Susan said, placing her hands on her hips. "You made a mistake in the Book, Nate. Apparently, if we vanquish the King, then we vanquish his entire clan. That's what the potion was for, to vanquish the King."

"I wondered why there was a potion _and_ a spell in there," Lucas muttered. "So are we going now?"

"As soon as the potion's done," Susan answered. "The last one got smashed when we were getting the kids out of there."

"Okay, well, then we'll go work on that," Nathan said, obviously sensing that she needed a moment with Shawn. "We'll see you in a minute." He pushed Lucas up the stairs and the brothers disappeared from sight.

There was a long, awkward pause between them before Shawn said quietly, "You know, we don't have to talk about this right now. There's a lot of important stuff going on right now."

"No, I think we should," Susan said softly. He glanced at her, obviously surprised. She didn't blame him; she hadn't exactly been very commutative lately. "Okay, Shawn, I know that things are not going too well right now, with either of this, but . . ." She sighed. "Don't you ever wonder how we're ever going to work things out? I mean, it seems like our entire relationship has been one big battle, especially lately."

"Well, relationships sometimes have obstacles to get through," Shawn pointed out quietly. "It's what strengthens us, makes us stronger together. If we just stand by each other, Susan, then love can conquer the impossible. It saved our son, didn't it? It saved you." He reached out and touched her cheek tenderly.

Susan nodded slowly, staring up at him. "It did," she whispered, slowly allowing herself to be enveloped by him. "And I know one thing. I don't want my boys to never know their father. I don't want you to never know them. Except for the exception of Dan, parents should know their children."

Shawn grinned wildly. "So you're saying that you want me back?" he asked cockily.

She frowned playfully, making a thoughtful expression. "I guess so," she said dryly. Shawn laughed. "But you are on probation, you hear?" Both of them laughed as Shawn pulled her into his arms and Susan allowed herself to get swept up into a tender and passionate kiss.

Which of course was interrupted by her brother as he appeared on the staircase and sent a vase flying into the wall to interrupt them. Susan jumped and Shawn jerked away.

"You coming?" Lucas said with an innocent smile. Susan rolled her eyes, gave Shawn another kiss, before she hurried up the stairs after the eldest Charmed One.

"Can't you just flick the porch light on like a normal person?" she grumbled, glaring at Lucas.

"I could, but I'm not."


	26. Prisoner of Evil

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-six: Prisoner of Evil

Will shivered slightly as he glanced towards the demons that were pacing back and forth across his cell, all of them eyeing him carefully. He wished he could get out of here, but the chances of that were slim to none with those demons walking across his cell every two minutes.

Pushing himself against the wall, Will curled up into a tight ball, trying to withdraw himself from the sight around him. He didn't want to be here; he just wanted to go anywhere but here.

_Don't worry, Susan will come,_ a tiny voice said inside of his head. He hated it when his conscious started talking to himself.

_She won't come; she doesn't even know about me. _

But the demons told her that you were her cousin, didn't they? With only that knowledge, she would come. Besides, she cares about people; she risked her life to save all of those kids, didn't she? Why wouldn't she risk her life to save yours when she knows that you're in deliberate danger.

Part of Will knew that his conscious was right, but he still was a little concerned that she wouldn't come. What he didn't understand was what the demons wanted with him; they'd said he was all that they wanted, but . . . why? What did they want with him?

Burying his head into his knees, Will tried to block out the jeering and mocking that the demons were throwing at him. It wasn't going to be long before they dragged him out of the cell and handed over to their master. He wasn't sure who that was just yet, but he was pretty positive that he was some kind of super powerful demon. Even more powerful than these were, which meant that it was going to be pretty difficult to get himself out of there.

"I've got to get out of here," he muttered, scrambling to his feet. There was no other option; he couldn't just wait around for Susan and her brothers to come and rescue him. If he waited, then they might show up too late. Besides, there was no guarantee that they would come at all.

Peering out of the cell, he glanced both directions for the demons and breathed a sigh of relief as one of them turned the corner. Keeping a close eye out—and using his empathy to sense if they approached—Will pulled a hairpin from his pocket and began picking the lock.

Growing up in the hands of social services, Will had learned a few valuable traits from the older kids. One of them had taught him how to pick a lock by the time he was seven. Of course, he had mainly been using it to break into people's houses and steal stuff, but Will had never used it for that.

_Click._ The cell door sprung open and Will dashed out of there before he could think twice about it. It didn't occur to him to shut the door or make it look like he was still there in his desperation to get away.

His footsteps hammered down the hall just as a demon shimmered in front of him. Will froze on the spot, his eyes widening, and another demon grabbed him from behind.

"Slippery little fellow, aren't you?" his captor sneered. "Well, don't worry, our master has great interest in all kinds of talents. Time for you to meet him, witch. And mind your manners with him. If you don't, it might be the last thing that you ever do." Both of them laughed as he dragged Will down the corridor while Will struggled to break free. It wasn't until he was forced into a chamber that he stopped struggling. And it was only because the person standing there had put fear into his heart.

"Allow me to present our master, young William," the demon said with a bow to the hooded figure standing before him. "The Source of All Evil."

"Leave us," the hooded figure said. His voice was neither male nor female, but somewhere in between, and filled with malice. The very sound of it make Will's skin crawl and he wanted nothing more than to get out of here. Even the cell he was in would be preferred than to be in this demon's presence.

The demons bowed and shimmered out. Will couldn't see his face because it was concealed beneath his hood, but he had the feeling if he had, then it would've been monstrosity.

"So . . ." the Source said softly. "You're the long lost Warren witch that the Whitelighter hid from me."

Will shook his head, forcing himself to speak. "I don't know what you're talking about." And he didn't want to know, either. Not from him. He wanted to know everything from his sister.

"Don't you? You don't know the truth about what you are . . . and who? Son of Elizabeth Dawson and Keith Scott, the firstborn child of the elder Scott brother, a source of good. Cousin of the Charmed Ones and half-brother to the sister as well." The Source chuckled menacingly. Will shrank back. "You're just a boy, aren't you?"

"Just let me go!" Will snapped, his temper getting in the way of his reason and common sense. "I haven't done anything to you!"

"Oh, but I have plans for you, young William. You've been neglected much of your young life, haven't you? Abandoned by your mother at birth, concealed from your sister and father. It must've hurt so much to find out that your mother kept one child and abandoned another. There are reasons why she did that, you know. She hated you."

Will shook his head, tears of rage and sorrow springing into his eyes. "No, she doesn't," he whispered.

"She was glad to get rid of you. Another child, another burden upon her. She already had enough with her daughter being a witch and a Charmed One, but to have another child from the same bloodline? I'm sure Elizabeth would've loved to have killed you, but she didn't have the nerve. Why, the woman was a coward. Not brave enough to tell the Elders about her daughter and not gallant enough to face the consequences of your uncle finding out about you. She had to erase their memories. It's amazing what hatred can do, William. It can cause a mother to do the unimaginable to her child."

"No, she didn't!" Will yelled, shaking with rage. "My mother loved me! Whatever caused her to give me up, she had her reasons! I know she did!"

"You could have a family here, William," the Source said, gesturing around them. "My followers will treat you with the respect you deserve and you could succeed me. The ruler of the Underworld, with demons following you. I only ask a few things in return."

"NEVER!" Will yelled, turning his back on the demon. This proved to be a mistake, because the moment that he did, the Source raised his hand, pointing a finger towards the boy. A dull, red light swarmed from it and flew into Will, who flinched as it made contact and his eyes flashed black for a moment.

"You will do as I command, William," the Source told him softly. "And when you do, you will succumb to my commands for all eternity. I will quite like having Keith Scott's child being my own personal assassin." Will shivered slightly, but said nothing, his brown eyes oddly blank. "You will go and find the Charmed Ones and kill them."

Something flashed behind Will's dead-looking eyes and he seemed to fight the command for a moment, but then the spell took over and he stopped. "Yes, Master," he said in a dull voice.


	27. Sibling Love

**Destiny's Way**

By Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-seven: Sibling Love

Lucas peered out from the rock that they were hiding behind, keeping a close watch out in close someone snuck up from behind. Susan had the potion bottle in her hand, ready to throw it when the Slayer King finally arrived. So far, they had only managed to get into their layer, but their King was nowhere to be seen.

"How much longer are we going to sit here waiting?" Nathan wanted to know. Susan shushed him. "Look, I am sick of sitting here. Plus, my foot is starting to fall asleep."

"I'm more worried about how we're going to know who the King is when he finally gets here," Lucas muttered. "Sue, was there anything in the _Book_ about how to tell which one is the King?"

Susan frowned, then nodded. "Yeah, I think it said that he was supposed to have some kind of an eye on the left side of his cheek. It was supposed to symbolise a dreaded curse. Known as the Evil Eye?" she added, seeing her brothers' sceptical looks. "Am I the only one who cares about our heritage in this family?"

"No, but you're the only one who goes overboard on it," Lucas responded, shaking his head. "You really need to get out of the house, Sue."

"Shut up!" Susan complained just as a Slayer demon appeared in the lair, looking exceptionally pleased with himself.

"The boy is in the hands of our master now," he said with an evil smile. "It will not be long before the son of Keith Scott is converted to our ways. And when he joins us, not even the Charmed Ones will have enough power to stop us." He laughed and turned to the side, where his left cheek was visible.

Lucas blinked when he saw the tattoo of an eye on the demon's cheek and glanced at Susan, who nodded. "All right, let's get over with and go find Will," Lucas muttered. "I will telekinise. Susan, you freeze and throw the potion when you get a chance. Nathan, you help me and try and keep them away from Sue."

Nathan frowned, then shook his head. "No, I'll attack the King, you and Susan cover me," he said, swiping the potion from his brother's hand.

"Nathan—"

But before either Lucas or Susan could stop him, the youngest Charmed One had pushed himself out of his hiding place. "Hey, geniuses, over here!" he yelled towards them. They turned around.

"Great," Lucas complained as the Slayer demons started throwing fireballs towards their brother. Susan leaped up and froze them in midair. Lucas sent the fireballs flying back towards the demons, trying to keep a close eye on the King as he attempted to escape.

"Oh, no, you don't," Susan snarled, flicking her hands to freeze the demon. He did freeze, but it wasn't going to be for long. He was already starting to break free from the freeze. "Nathan, throw the potion!" Susan shrieked at him. He wasted no time.

The moment that the potion hit, the Slayer demon exploded. Lucas seized his brother and materialised him to the other end of the cave. "Susan, orb over here!" he screamed at her. Seconds later, a flurry of orbs appeared next to him and Susan let out a deep breath. Every demon in the vicinity was exploding and it was as though a bomb had exploded in the middle of the cave. When it finally stopped, Lucas let out a deep breath.

"Okay, first step done," he remarked. "Now all we have to do is find Will and get him out of here."

"Somehow, I don't think that's going to be so easy, Luke," Susan said softly, staring at the place where the Slayer King had stood. She looked towards them, fear in her blue-green eyes. "What did he mean by, 'the boy is in the hands of our master'?"

Dread surged through Lucas and he looked around, half-expecting the Source to appear out of nowhere. "We have to find him, now!" he said harshly.

"Luke, we don't have any spell to vanquish the Source," Nathan protested. "If he is with him, then how are we supposed to save Will if we don't even have the means to vanquish his captor?"

"You're not going to have to worry about saving me," a voice spoke up. They all turned and Lucas saw Will standing in the room, his brown eyes holding no though or emotion. "Just worry about yourselves, that's all."

--

The moment that her brother appeared in the room, Susan knew something was wrong. She didn't know _how_ she knew, she just did. Maybe it was her Whitelighter instincts kicking in or maybe it was some deep, unknown connection that she had with him.

She only needed to look once at his brown eyes—so much like his father's—to know that it was not Will that was standing before him.

Granted, it may look and sound like Will and he might be underneath the surface, but something was wrong. Something was controlling him. "Careful, Sue," Lucas said quietly, moving slightly in front of her. She glanced at him; obviously he saw it, too. So did Nathan, she noticed when she saw her younger brother glance at his cousin.

"What have they done to him?" Susan whispered, her heart beating fast and uncontrollable. "What have they _done_ to him?"

"They haven't done anything to me," Will responded dismissively. He glanced at what was left of the Slayer demons. "They only delivered me to their master and he has freed me."

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Freed me from all the pain and anguish that you've caused me, _sister_." Susan flinched slightly when she heard the word coming from him like that . . . as though it were an insult. "Do you know what it's like, to lie awake at night and wonder if you ever belong? Well, do you? To wonder if your family even loved you and if they did, why did they give you up in the first place? To be pushed from place to place, having every person who you thought might have a home with reject you?"

Susan stared at Will as something of the boy she'd seen before flashed in his eyes. But only for a moment. As quickly as it had come, they changed back to those vacant and unfeeling eyes that were so cold . . .

"And to find out that your birth mother had another child, one that she kept," Will continued. "That just about killed me when I found that out. So what did our _mother_ tell you the reason was for giving me up? That I was just useless, because I wasn't supposed to have a great destiny, like you were?"

It took all of Susan's willpower not to lose control on the spot. As furious as she was with her mother at the moment, she knew that it wasn't going to help matters much to bring her personal feelings about what she thought of Elizabeth right now into this.

"No, she loved you," she said softly. "She loved you so much, Will. Our mother loved you as much as she loved me. It broke her heart to give you up, but you would've been in greater danger if she'd kept you. My father . . . your uncle, would've killed you if he knew that your dad had fathered a child."

"Not a good enough reason."

"You never met him, thank goodness. Will, he tried to kill you once before, when you were only a baby. Mom made him forget about you, but there's no guarantee that his memories would've come back. She was trying to protect you!"

"Really?" Will looked as though he were trying to believe her and not believe her at the same time; he was fighting the spell. "Then why didn't she ever tell you about me?"

"I . . ."

She had no answer to this. Susan looked helplessly at her brothers, who glanced at each other. No one had an answer for that particular question and Susan felt tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Because sometimes you need to find out stuff on your own," Susan said at long last. "The truth comes to us when we're ready to hear it. I think she wanted to tell me when I was able to help guide you onto your path, your destiny as a witch. We're Warrens, Will, and that means we follow the same path of fighting evil, just as our ancestors have done before us and just as future generations will continue to do long after we're gone." Susan let out a deep breath, looking at Will straight in the eye. "My father was a fallen witch, all right, one turned to the path of evil. Don't let him turn you, Will! You are a good witch, fight this!"

Will scrunched up his face, looking as though he were having an inwardly battle. He was breathing very heavily as his eyes flashed back for a minute. "Susan, help me!" he screamed.

Behind her, Nathan gasped. She didn't need to see the look on his face to know that he was having a premonition. But she didn't have time to know what he was seeing; she had to help her brother. Susan couldn't deny that this was her brother; she could feel that mysterious connection linking her to Will just as strongly as she felt it with Nathan and Lucas.

Without thinking twice, she raced forward to help her as those cold eyes returned to Will. "SUSAN, NO!" Nathan yelled, racing after her as Susan skidded to a stop, staring at Will in shock.

Just as he was about to attack her, Nathan pushed her out of the way and Susan looked up just in time to see Nathan flung sideways towards the other end of the wall, hitting it with such a massive force that it shook the cave.

"NATHAN!"

Lucas and Susan both raced towards their brother, kneeling down beside him. Susan breathed in relief; he was all right, just out cold. Stroking his hair gently, she turned towards Will, who was looking horrified and satisfied at the same time.

Looking at Lucas, Susan whispered helplessly, "I have to help him, Luke. I have to do this on my own."

The eldest Charmed One hesitated, but upon seeing the determined look in his sister's eyes, nodded once. "All right, but orb out if there's any trouble and I'll materialise Nathan out." She nodded as she got to her feet, her son giving her a small kick to the kidneys. He didn't like this any more than she did, she guessed.

"But careful, though," Lucas warned her softly as she stood up. "That's not Will, remember."

"Some of it is," she replied, but made no effort to lower her voice. "I saw it in his eyes."

But how did one go about breaking a spell cast by the Source of All Evil? While she was a powerful witch, she didn't know anything about demonic spells.

_Maybe the answer isn't magical, Susie-girl, _a voice that sounded surprisingly like her uncle spoke in her head. _He's saying stuff that isn't magical at all, they're mortal. So maybe the answer to the problem isn't meant to be solved by magic. You're his sister. Help him as only a sister can. _

_But I don't know him like I do Nathan and Lucas. He's a complete stranger to me. _Susan felt like crying.

_So were they when you first met them._ Susan stopped, considering this. He was right; she had been a complete stranger to her brothers when she met them and them to her. This was no different. But things were a lot more complicated now.

"Will," she said softly, "you don't want to do this. Whatever her reasons, we can only trust that Mom was trying to do the right thing. I don't pretend that I agree with her. To be honest, I don't really feel like defending her right now. But even I saw the pain in her eyes when she told me who you were. Pain and love, Will, that's what I saw." She took a tentative stop forward. "Your dad . . . was one of the best people that I knew. He always was and he always will be, even in the afterlife. I'm sorry you never got to know him, but you'll know him through you, because even though I don't know you, I can tell that you're a strong-willed and kind person. Just like Keith." She tried to smile.

Will was struggling inside, she realised. It was close; he was close to breaking free. "He loves you, too," she added. Love, that was the key. The greatest of all powers, as Keith had once said when they were going up against the Demon of Fear. "And so do I. I love you, Will. You're my brother and you always will be. I love you, even if I don't know you. But how can I get the chance to know you if you're not the brother that I know is inside of you?" He was shaking with agony. "I love you, Will, please come back," she whispered, taking a step forward and placing her hands on his shoulders and getting down on her knees so she could look at him in the eye.

The boy in front of her gave a shuddering gasp and then his brown eyes cleared and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his head into her shoulder. Susan held him back as he sobbed. "I love you, too, Susan," she heard him whisper. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I could see you, but I couldn't stop."

"It's okay, it's okay," Susan whispered, stroking his brown hair gently. He was just a kid, really, she thought. Not even a teenager. "It's over now. It's done with." She glanced over at her brothers and saw Nathan was stirring.

"Come on," she said with a small smile. "Let's go home."


	28. The Dawson Siblings

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-five: The Dawson Siblings

Susan poured the hot water into the two cups on the table, keeping a close eye on the brother that was sitting across of the table, looking extremely nervous and slightly guilty. Will hadn't spoken since they'd escaped from the cave and Susan had let him contemplate what had happened in silence, not ready to become the older sister just yet.

It was different with Nathan. He was only two months younger than she was. More than that, he was already a grown man by the time that she had met him, married to Haley, and not to long after that, going to be a father.

But Will was just a kid; barely even twelve years old. Jeez, she could remember twelve years old. It wasn't exactly the easiest time of her life. She wasn't exactly the popular girl and growing up with a single mother with no past . . . well, things weren't that easy for _her_. Will had to grow up in foster care with no one to depend on.

As she set the cups on the table, she glanced over at Will for a minute, who was staring down at his hands. "You want any sugar in the tea?" she asked. He shook his head. "Sure? It's not that good by itself."

"All right." Will shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't exactly had much tea. Don't get it a lot in social services."

Nodding once, Susan headed over to the cabinet and returning with the pot of sugar, adding two scoops to each cup. "Let me know if that's too much," she told him as he took a sip, still avoiding looking at her. She took a drink of her own cup, still watching her little brother carefully. He seemed to know she was watching her, because he finally forced himself to look up at her, brown eyes meeting her blue-green ones.

"You all right?" Susan said, knowing perfectly well that he was far from. She hadn't met the Source yet, but she had to guess that the experience was far from pleasant.

Will shrugged carelessly, looking back down at his hands again. She glanced down and saw that his hands were shaking.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, Will picked up his cup again, but his hands were shaking so badly that he accidentally knocked it over, sending the cup flying and the contents spilling everywhere.

Quick as a wink before it went everywhere, Susan flicked her wrists, freezing the cup.

"I'm sorry!" Will exclaimed, looking horrified at what he'd done. "I didn't mean to—"

"It's all right, no harm done," Susan said easily. "Go grab one of those buckets by the sink, all right, before it unfreezes." Will did as he was told and she pushed it underneath the cup, flicking her wrist again. The teacup dropped into the bucket, along with the tea.

When she set the bucket down, she looked towards her reserved brother and sighed. "Will, it's okay, all right? Accidents happen. You didn't do anything wrong. Come on, sit down."

He obeyed, but still stared at his hands. "I'm sorry," he whispered. She raised an eyebrow questioningly. "I'm sorry about what happened in that cave, I could see you guys but I couldn't stop it." He was sobbing into his knees by now and Susan stood up, walking over to him, sitting down next to him and wrapping a comforting arm around him. He buried his head into her chest, still sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Susan, I couldn't stop it, I tried. But the spell wouldn't let me . . . I'm sorry I hurt Nathan . . ." With a small sniffle, he looked up. "Are they very mad at me?"

"Luke and Nate? Nah, they just wanted to give us some time to talk. Not to mention, Luke wanted to spend some time some time with Janie and Nathan wanted to wrap his head around all this." She thought it kinder not to say that he probably hurt his head harder than her brother was willing to admit.

"Oh." Will looked down at his hands again. "Are _you_ mad at me?" he asked finally.

With a sigh, Susan pulled away from the embrace, placing both hands on her brother's shoulders, making him look at her. "I am _not_ mad at you. You didn't do anything wrong, Will. The Source is a very bad guy who wants revenge against us for vanquishing some of his best demons, including but not limited to my demonic father."

"That's my uncle?"

"If you want to claim kinship to him, which I don't most days," Susan responded dryly. "Will, be glad that you don't know him, okay? I wish that I had never met Dan. My first memory of him is when he fired a gun onto Keith and trying to kill me."

"Nice dad."

"Tell me about it." Susan was rewarded with a small smile from Will, but it reminded her, painfully, of her mother. Elizabeth was far from forgiven about keeping this from her, but she wasn't going to hold a grudge against her for this. She had seen where that had led Dan and if there was one thing she was determined about, it was that she wasn't going to end up like him. How anyone like Dan could father the Charmed Ones, a source of good, was beyond her. Perhaps it was a sign that some good could spring from the depths of evil.

"Tell me about our mother," Will said quietly. "Was she unhappy that she gave me up? Why did she keep you and not me?"

Susan took a deep breath. "I don't know, but my father had a lot to do with it," she said slowly, not at all sure how much she should tell him. After all, how could a twelve-year-old handle the truth of his own conception when it was like Will's had been?

Obviously, Will sensed her inner debate because he looked at her crossly and said, "I'm not a kid, okay? I've been through a lot, Susan, and I can handle a lot more than you think I can. Just tell me. How bad could it be, anyway?"

"Famous last words," she muttered. "All right." Without further ado, she relayed the events of thirteen years ago, when her mother had returned with her to Tree Hill to tell her and Lucas that they were siblings.

By the time that she had finished, Will's mouth was hanging open and he was shaking his head. "I am _so_ glad that I never met Dan," he said at last. "Otherwise, I might have given him a good punch to—" At Susan's warning look, he faltered. "Uh . . . to his nose."

"I'm sure that's what you were going to say," Susan said, shaking her head. "You're definitely a Scott boy."

"We're not that bad!" Nathan yelled from upstairs. Both Will and Susan glanced upwards and then at each other.

"No privacy in this house," Susan grumbled. "And that's not including all the demons that come around here at all hours of the night, bent on killing us." Will grinned and Susan shook her head. "Well, you want to tell _me_ why you came looking for me? I'm not complaining," she added hurriedly, not wanting him to get the wrong idea, "I'm just curious."

Will sighed. "I don't know, I guess I just wanted to know where I belonged and where I came from. Mostly, I wanted to find my mother, but after the car accident, I knew it wasn't possible. Still, I . . . I tried to find you, because I wanted to find my family. But you left and I couldn't find you. A little while after that, I started getting these powers. Seeing things before they happened and I could read people's emotions."

"Premonitions and empathy," Susan supplied. "That's what they're called," she explained to his bewildered expression. "Premonitions is when you're seeing the future and empathy is sense what other people are feeling."

"Could Dad do either one of them?" Will asked, looking curious. Susan smiled weakly and shook her head, but glad that their conversation had turned towards Keith. That was a subject she felt comfortable discussing.

"No, he had the Warren power of telekinesis," she explained. "He could move things with his mind, same as Luke. Nathan has the same power you do, premonitions. And I can freeze time," she added, nodding towards where the teacup had been a little while ago. "And orb, but that comes from my Whitelighter side."

"Whitelighter?"

"Yeah, uh . . . Whitelighters are kind of like guardian angels for witches," Susan explained, tugging on a strand of her hair absently. "Mom was one, before she gave up her powers to become mortal when she found out she was pregnant with me. And Nathan's wife Haley is a Whitelighter and my . . ." What could she call Shawn? she wondered. Boyfriend? Father of her child? "Shawn is a Whitelighter, too," she said finally.

"Is this Shawn responsible for that?" Will asked wickedly, nodding towards her swollen stomach.

Susan coloured interestedly. "I'm not going to dignify that with a response," she responded. Will grinned. "All right, well, you're going to need to pick a bedroom and I'll put some fresh sheets on the bed. Is that all you brought with you?" she asked, nodding towards his bag. He nodded, looking bewildered. "Well, then, tomorrow, you and I will go shopping—"

"Wait, what?"

"I'm not going to have any brother of mine walking around like a vagrant," Susan replied. "And if you're planning on staying, then you're going to get some new clothes. You were planning on staying here, weren't you?"

Will nodded, not speaking.

"Well, then, I'm going to get you some new clothes," Susan replied. "No arguments on that one. And you are going back to school."

"What? No!"

"William Alan Forrester, you are twelve years old. You belong in school, all right? Trust me, I hated school when I was twelve, too, but eventually you'll be glad that you did it."

Her brother scowled, but shoved his hands into his pockets. "On one condition," he said, glancing up at her.

"That being?"

"You have to teach me everything that you know about witchcraft," he answered with a grin. "I don't like having to rely on people for stuff, not like this. I can deal with going to school and having someone take care of me if you just let me fight demons every once in awhile and not have to hide out every time that they attack."

Susan considered this and had to admit, he had a point. "All right," she agreed, holding out her hand. "You've got a deal. Now, let's go find you a bedroom," she said, standing up and walking out of the room, guiding her brother to the upper floor.


	29. A Touch of Normality

**Destiny's Way**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-six: A Touch of Normality 

Over two months had passed since Will had entered into their lives and Lucas had watched his mother die and suddenly become responsible for his baby sister. Now, he was responsible for three kids, not to mention a nephew and his sister's unborn child.

Which wasn't exactly true. Susan and Nathan were perfectly capable of taking care of their kids, but Lucas was starting to worry about what would happen if something happened to them. And he wasn't talking about demonically. Demon trouble he could handle, but if the worst should happen and he had to assume responsibility for all of the kids. Could he handle it?

Susan was growing bigger by the day—though no one dared mentioned this to her face—and at seven months pregnant, she was already preparing the nursery for her new bundle of joy. Thankfully, since the last incident, demon activity had been light.

"It's a good time to get ahead," Susan had remarked as she had cleaned out her closet, converting it into a nursery for her baby. Shawn had moved into the manor, which was starting to feel overcrowded slightly, but considering the amount of room that was left, the house could use a few more occupants.

Lucas had originally worried about his mom's café and it being destroyed because there was no one to take care of it. His mother's beloved café and her nineteen-year-old business. However, Susan and Deb managed to smooth over those worries by taking it over and managing it just as well as his mother had. It helped that his mother had taken Susan on as a sort of apprentice and taught her all of her recipes, something that both of them had enjoyed. He hadn't minded the two of them spending time together, but now that he thought about it, he wished that he'd spent a little bit more time with them. All of that time that he'd spent with Brooke or the twins or at the newspaper or at school could've been with his mom. And now that was something he'd never get back.

Both his brother and sister had been great ever since his mom died. Susan had practically yanked him out of bed when he insisted he wasn't going to get out of bed, just spend it sleeping.

"Staying in bed isn't going to help matters much," she told him as she held the blankets out of reach. Lucas tried to use his telekinesis to yank them back, but she had managed to retain a good grip on them.

Nathan had helped out by baby-sitting for the twins a lot when he needed some time alone or with Janie. He even listened when Lucas needed to talk. His little brother wasn't the greatest listener, but even he had kind of understood what he was going through.

Lucas was pulled from his thoughts as his wife waltzed through the kitchen, each of the twins on a hip. "Give me a hand here, will you?" Brooke said as she attempted to put both of them in the high chairs at the same time.

Trying very hard not to smile, Lucas stood up and walked over to her, hoisting Peyton into his arms before setting her into the chair. She squealed at her father, grinning wildly, as her aunt came into the room.

"Okay, we've got a problem," she said quickly, making way towards the pot of hot water on the stove.

"Family problems or demonic ones?" Lucas asked dryly, glancing up at her with an amused smile on his face. Her pregnancy had made her positively crazy. Or at least crazier. She was always a little nutty. But she was allowed her eccentricities.

"Family, of course," Susan said, making a face. "Look, I'm supposed to go talk to Will's principal this morning, because they called and said they needed to talk to me, but Deb just called and said that she can't come into the café this morning to cover for me."

"What about Haley?" Lucas asked, frowning. "Oh, wait—doesn't she have that Whitelighter thing to go to today?" Susan nodded. "Okay, forget Haley. Uh, Nathan . . . has class right now. Brooke . . ." He turned towards his wife.

"Has to meet with somebody, because they are interested in taking Clothes Over Bro's for a fashion line," Brooke finished up for him. "What about Shawn? Can't he cover?"

"Talk to your husband about it," Susan said, giving her brother the evil eye. "He's the one who insisted that my boyfriend not pick up any of the slack at the café or the club."

"I said I would prefer for him not to help out and that was only when he scared some customers away when he said that his favourite band was one that was from the forties." Lucas rolled his eyes when both women stared at him. "Is there any point in arguing this?"

"No," both of them said at the same time.

"I'll go talk to Shawn," Brooke said, rolling her eyes. "You go take care of Will, okay?" Without waiting for a response, she headed out of the room to go talk to their former Whitelighter.

Susan turned towards Lucas, her hands on her hips. "You know, Luke," she said sweetly, "things might be a little easier around her if you would let up holding this grudge against your future _brother-in-law_." He hated the way that she emphasised the words.

"Can I help it if I don't want anything to happen to you?" he asked. Susan smiled dryly. "I just don't want you to get hurt again, little sister. I mean, how long is this going to last? What if he gets made a Whitelighter again? He said he's only on probation."

Susan sighed. "Well, then, we'll deal with that when it happens. Trust me, Luke, nothing bad is going to happen."

"You realise that every time somebody says that, something usually always does?" Lucas asked. "Especially in this house. And especially with the Source still trying to kill us."

"He's not coming after us right now and our main problem is that my big brother will not give my boyfriend a break," Susan shot back. Lucas sighed. "Now, I have to go get Will and take him to school. Can you please try and make an attempt to settle things with Shawn by the time I get back?"

Lucas shook his head, defeated. "Fine," he said, suppressing a sigh. "I'll try. But it's for you, not for me, all right?"

Standing up, he was almost out of the room when Susan said, "Lucas Eugene Scott." He stopped and turned around. She was smiling. "Thanks for caring," she said gently.

Smiling at his little sister, Lucas said, "You're welcome." Climbing the stairs, he headed for his and Brooke's room to help her with the kids.

--

"Are you sure that you don't know what this is all about?" Susan asked her brother for the millionth time as she walked into the junior high with him. The last time that she'd been in this school was when she had enrolled him at the school. "You haven't done anything, have you?"

Will flashed her his famous "who, me?" smile and shook his head. "I swear that I don't know, Sue. He probably just wants to make sure everything is okay at home and all, considering the situation."

Susan sighed. "Only in Tree Hill."

"You can say that again." Will shook his head. "So, what's going on with Lucas, anyway?" She gave him an inquiring look. "I heard you guys arguing in the kitchen this morning."

"It's nothing," Susan sighed. Will raised his eyebrows. "That I cannot handle. He's just being the overprotective big brother."

"Yeah, I got me an overprotective big sister at home," Will drawled, wiggling one of his eyebrows. Susan couldn't help giggling slightly. She still wondered how he'd done that as they headed into the building.

"You sure that you don't want me to come with you?" Will asked her, frowning. "That principal is a real piece of work."

"Will, if I can handle demons, I can handle your principal. Now scoot, get yourself to class," Susan ordered, giving him a stern look. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. It's you that you need to worry about. Don't you have a test first thing?"

"Yeah," Will moaned.

"So go and get in some study time." Will made a face as she shooed him away. She sighed as he walked away, a girl hurrying up to him and talking to her younger brother.

A smile tugged on her face as she watched the two of them. It was nice to see him interacting with someone outside of family. She rarely heard Will talk about any friends at school since he'd moved here. She worried about it, despite the fact that she hadn't had many friends before she moved here, but she supposed that things just took time. Friendships couldn't be built in a day, after all.

Walking into the junior high office, Susan waited patiently for the secretary to finish up with a student before turning her attention to her. "Hi, my name is Susan Dawson-Scott. The principal called me yesterday and said he wanted to talk to me about my brother."

"What's your brother's name?" The secretary reached for a couple of files that were lying on the desk.

"Will Forester." Susan didn't miss the recognition that crossed the secretary's face and the loud sigh that emitted from her. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"You'll have to talk to Mr. Thomas about it, Mrs. Scott," the secretary replied, casting a glance over Susan.

Irritation flew through her. Why did everyone insist on calling her by her father's surname only?

"It's _Dawson_-Scott," Susan replied, trying to keep a rein on her temper. "And it's miss, not missus."

The secretary was unabashed, however, and didn't bother apologising for the use of the wrong name. "My mistake," she said calmly. "Take a seat, Miss Scott. When Mr. Thomas is finished with the student that's in there, he'll speak with you."

Annoyance filled through her as she walked over to the chairs. "It's Dawson-Scott," she grumbled, rubbing her swollen stomach carefully as she felt her son give a vigorous kick, directly to her kidneys. "Oh, jeez. I swear, this kid is going to be a soccer player."

"And here I thought that the Scott kids would all end up in my gym," a familiar voice spoke up. Susan looked up and instantly grinned when she saw who was standing next to her.

"Coach Durham!" she said, greeting the old man with a hug. Whitey hugged her back. "How have you been? I thought you retired."

"I did," Whitey agreed as he helped her sit down and took the seat next to her. "Of course, that didn't keep me too satisfied for long. Thought that I might get another coaching job. Turner was going to recommend me to a school not to far away from here, but I had to track him down. His kid got into a heap of trouble a few days ago, thought I might be able to help out."

"You're gonna teach another high school?" Susan asked, frowning. She hadn't thought that he'd get another coaching position at another school.

Whitey shook his head. "Nope. College," he corrected. "About two hours from here. The gym's terrible, nobody comes to the games, and they haven't had a winning basketball season in twenty years." He grinned. "Perfect opportunity for a fool who won the state championship a year ago."

Susan chuckled, remembering the basketball tournament that her brothers had won last year. It had been after Anderson had been vanquished and demon activity had been light. She hadn't remembered when she'd had such a good time with her family. It had been the first time in a long while that she'd enjoyed herself.

"So, what are you doing here?" Whitey inquired. "Little early to be enrolling the new one in the school, isn't it?" He was grinning. "Aren't your niece and nephews only about a year old now? And that little cousin of yours is about the same, isn't she?"

"Yeah, I guess you haven't heard the latest scandal of Tree Hill, huh?" Susan asked him. Whitey raised his eyebrows. "I've got another brother, but this time it was by my mom. He's twelve years old and the principal called and asked me to come in."

"Your mom had another kid?" Whitey frowned. "Well, what about his dad? Where's he at?"

Susan smiled faintly. "Well, Will isn't just my brother, Coach. He's also my cousin."

It didn't take Whitey long to figure out what she meant by that. "Keith's kid?" he asked softly. Susan nodded just as Principal Turner headed out, followed by a kid that looked like he could be his son.

"Miss Dawson-Scott?" a voice asked and Susan glanced around towards the man that had spoken. "I've been expecting you. Come on into my office."

Without waiting for her to follow, he turned and headed into the office that he'd just come out of. Susan sighed and looked towards Whitey. "I'd better go get this over with," she said, standing up. "But it was really nice to see you again, Coach."

"Nice to see you, too, Susan," Whitey said with a smile. "And if you ever need anybody to talk to about your family and stuff, stop on by."

"I will," Susan said as she walked back into Principal Thomas's office.


End file.
